


Golden Game

by Pixxyofice



Series: Time of the Golden Game [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: 'what do you MEAN nonbinary byleth isn't the default', Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Golden Deer Route Spoilers, Multi, Nonbinary My Unit | Byleth, Oops, Time Travel Fix-It, aka claude and co plan out how exactly they'll throw things off the rails, and their paralogue, byleth fucks up and accidentally divine pulses, byleth who is trying to keep things the same so that they just get back to that point freaks out, for some reason the whole Squad kept their memories so there's Them doing That, idk how i thought of this but i did and i love it, should've had this before but my brain wsa like, spoilers for seteth and flayn a support
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2020-02-24
Packaged: 2020-10-20 13:15:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 41,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20675978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pixxyofice/pseuds/Pixxyofice
Summary: The door to his room slammed open, startling him. Hilda stood in the doorway, staring intently at Claude. He noticed that instead of the twintails that she bore during their academy days, she had pinned her hair up into a high ponytail, reminiscent of the style she wore during the war. The only things that made it clear that this Hilda was younger was a lack of her signature earrings, her rounder face, and the pajamas on her body that her older self sighed about not being able to fit into anymore."Claude," She said, hands gripping the doorframe, "What the fuck just happened? Did we just travel back in time?"---the crew gets teleported back in time. the crew decides a good thing to do is to fix all the mistakes that happened.Byleth, who accidentally caused this to happen in the first place, does not want that to happen.





	1. Wake Up

**Author's Note:**

> edited by solsticeScriptures, a friend of mine!

Claude's eyes opened to the ceiling of the monastery dorm. _ There’s something wrong with this _, a faint feeling at the back of his head said, but his body hadn’t caught up yet. He stretched a bit, wincing as his elbow hit the spine of a book next to him.

He looked over to the book, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the darkness of his room at night. It was... one of the first few books he borrowed from the library, during his first week at the monastery. He remembered finishing it rather quickly. Why was it on his bed?

_ Why am I in my bed and not in the archbishop's room? _

Claude stared at the book for a moment longer, before his mind and body clicked together pieces of the puzzle for him. Glancing up, his eyes darted from side to side, taking in the surrounding room. It wasn’t as worn down as he remembered. The golden carpet on the ground was relatively clean, not dirtied by him forgetting to take off his boots multiple times. A golden cape was draped on the edge of his bed, alongside multiple copies of the same uniform.

A uniform that had been torn apart when the war started.

His mind spat out the solution for him. _ You're five years in the past. _

What. That made no sense! And yet... Claude had to admit that everything he had seen pointed towards that conclusion. He pulled himself into sitting position, wiping the sleep from his eyes. 

If that was true, it would be useful to-

The door to his room slammed open, startling him. Hilda stood in the doorway, staring intently at Claude. He noticed that instead of the twintails that she bore during their academy days, she had pinned her hair up into a high ponytail, reminiscent of the style she wore during the war. The only things that made it clear that this Hilda was younger was a lack of her signature earrings, her rounder face, and the pajamas on her body that her older self sighed about not being able to fit into anymore.

"Claude," She said, hands gripping the doorframe, "What the_ fuck _ just happened? Did we just travel back in time?"

Claude nodded at Hilda, slipping between his books and sliding out of the bed. He put a hand to his chin, pausing at the feeling of a bare chin. _ Right. In the past. _

"So, we're in the past. If I were to guess by the appearance of my carpet..." Claude glanced down at the golden carpet, looking at the few boot marks in it. "It's not right when the school year started, but probably before Teach picked a house."

Hilda glanced down at the carpet, tracing the boot marks with her eyes. After a while, she nodded, looking back up at Claude. Releasing her grip on the door, Hilda glanced back at the hallway and Claude followed her eye, staring at the window in front of his room, where moonlight gleamed through the glass.

They were supposed to be sleeping. But Claude wasn't feeling very sleepy and clearly, neither was Hilda.

"Let's head to the classroom," Claude said, picking up a uniform and his golden cape. "I'll meet you outside your room, and we'll head there together."

Hilda glanced down at her pajamas, and her eyebrows creased slightly, a sad smile creeping onto her face. "Oh... right. Meet me outside my room."

* * *

Dressed in their officer’s academy uniforms, the two met outside Hilda’s room. Hilda kept adjusting her skirt, clearly not used to how much longer it was than the outfit she wore during the war. Claude found himself playing with his cape, not used to the feeling of it draped over his right shoulder.

Hilda glanced over at Claude and beamed. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get to the classroom!" She flashed a smile, and started walking down the stairs. Claude bit back a laugh and followed after her.

He watched as Hilda’s steps slowed, stopping in front of the room next to the bottom of the stairs, glancing up at the door. Claude walked next to her, paused, then looked at the nameplate on the door.

_ Marianne. _

Claude placed a hand on Hilda's shoulder. Noticing the way she jumped beneath his hand, he lifted it. "You can go." He had a smile on his face, and Hilda turned to him, beaming.

Turning back to the door, Hilda walked up to it. She lifted up a hand and knocked once on the door. Before she could even knock again, it cracked open. Hilda withdrew her hand in the face of Marianne, who had bags under her eyes—

Marianne, who was smiling so widely that Claude could've sworn she was older and more recovered. The blue-haired girl drew Hilda in for a hug, and the two of them embraced in the hallway. Claude could have sworn that he saw Marianne lean down to whisper something into Hilda's ear, with Hilda bursting into giggles soon after.

After hugging, the two girls separated from their embrace, holding each other’s hands. Hilda pulled one hand away to reach up and tuck the stray strands of Marianne’s hair into her braided hair.

"Okay, I get it, lovebirds." Claude said, and the two of them turned and gave Claude a soul-shrinking stare. The future leader of the alliance laughed, putting up his hands in a sign of surrender. "Go on being yourselves, I guess, but we have to get to the classroom."

"Get to the- oh!" Marianne blinked. She laughed nervously, and broke away from Hilda's grip. "I, uh... need to get into my uniform."

"You're fine, you're fine." Hilda pushed Marianne back into her room, laughing. Claude couldn't help but smile at the two of them. "I'll meet you back outside, darling!"

Claude thought he saw Marianne's face flush red. Marianne ducked into her room, and Hilda's laugh echoed in the empty hallway as the door slammed shut in her face.

* * *

Claude pushed open the doors of the Golden Deer classroom, a serious look on his face. Trailing behind him were Hilda and Marianne, their hands held tightly together. Claude opened his mouth, ready to say something, but what he saw in the classroom made his words die in his throat.

Sylvain glanced up at him from the desk he was sitting at, with Ashe by his side. Ashe put his arm up in a wave, a sheepish expression on his face. His mouth was moving, but Claude wasn't registering what he was saying. His gaze swept over to Linhardt, who had laid his head down and peeked an eye open when Claude entered the classroom. Lysithea was sitting next to him, fighting off sleep.

His eyes moved to the center of the room, where the rest of the Golden Deer were waiting. Lorenz, Leonie, Ignatz, Raphael... they were sitting there, obviously waiting. To their side sat Dorothea and Bernadetta, who were chatting about something, but stopped when Claude entered the room.

All of their attention was on him, as well as the two following behind him. Claude didn't know what he was supposed to say now. Originally, he was going to say that he was going to claim the room, but everyone from before was here. And yet, it didn't necessarily mean they all remembered, did they?

Suddenly, Hilda broke off from Marianne and stood in front of Claude. "Alright, everyone!" She cheered, jolting Lysithea from her sleep. "Raise your hand if you thought Claude looked hot with a beard!"

Silence. And then— 

_ Everybody’s _ hand rose. Claude raised his own, and Sylvain burst into laughter at seeing that. Alright, that was one way to confirm it. Hilda turned back to Claude and did a little mock bow. A ‘you're welcome' did not come from her lips, but he could feel it as she rose. She stepped back behind him, and he stepped forward.

"Alright, gang." He started, with everyone's attention on him. "First, we need to be closer together. Try moving to the front of the room." With that, he started to walk over to Teach's desk, hearing footsteps and shuffling from behind him as everyone followed.

He heard the faint voice of Lysithea trying to snap Linhardt back to action, and heard someone else mutter something about how of _ course _ he would go to the Professor's desk.

Claude picked up a piece of chalk and walked over to the blackboard. "Just to confirm—we all have memories of the Nemesis fight, right?"

He heard a “Yeah” from Sylvain, who stood between Linhardt and Lysithea, who merely blinked at Claude. To the side, he could see Dorothea dip her head, her previous cheeriness vanishing in favor of the familiar, subdued sadness that followed her throughout the war.

As Leonie and Raphael said “Yup”, he caught sight of Bernadetta and Ignatz, who both shuddered at the sound of ‘Nemesis’. 

Ashe fiddled with the strings of his hoodie as he nodded assent, followed by the familiar sound of Lorenz huffing as he dipped his head dramatically. 

Claude watched as Hilda and Marianne scooted closer together, with Hilda reaching out to wrap her arm around Marianne’s waist, nodding at him. 

After looking between everyone, Claude turned to the blackboard. He picked up an eraser and began wiping off all the text. Byleth wouldn't care about the previous professor's notes, anyway. "So, now that we're here, we should think about what happens during this school year..."


	2. Last Pulse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The goddess huffed, pouting. “I mean, about us going back in time,” Sothis clarified, waving one hand in the air, the ribbons wrapped around her wrists flowing and curling with the motion. "What are we going to do? Are we going to try to stop events, or are we going to—"
> 
> “We’re going to keep things the same,” Byleth said, causing Sothis to freeze, her green eyes widening. Byleth could see her thoughts in her expression.
> 
> _Why?_  
\---  
byleth wakes up. sothis wakes up too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [sothis voice] wake up byleth! you fucked up big time!
> 
> [byleth voice] sothis  
\---  
edited, again, by solsticeScriptures!

A faint feeling of panic was throbbing through their veins, causing Byleth to raise their fingers to their throat. Hesitantly, almost as if terrified of the outcome, they gently pressed against the veins on their neck, waiting to feel the familiar thrum of their pulse.

Pulse.  _ Their  _ pulse. They  _ needed  _ to feel their pulse.

The faint throb of a pulse beneath their fingertips caused Byleth to pull their hand back. They sighed, watching their hand drop back onto their lap.

They heard a yawn from their side, and Byleth looked over to see Sothis, floating near the foot of their bed. The girl ran a hand through her long, green hair, holding a hand in front of her mouth. After a few moments of yawning, she opened her eyes, and Byleth winced as her face twisted from her previously sleepy expression into anger.

"Wh... What did you  _ do?! _ " She yelled, floating up from the bedside, hair puffing out like a cat. "The last thing I knew, I was... sleeping, aware of you being talked to by Rhea, and then suddenly, I'm  _ actually  _ asleep!"

Talked to by Rhe—

_ Oh. _

Byleth turned away from Sothis, feeling a twinge of guilt in their unbeating heart. That was right. Rhea...

* * *

_ "Byleth," Rhea whispered, her voice shaking. It was clear that she was losing her strength day by day. Byleth hovered over the archbishop's bed, aware of the presence of their most trusted around them _

_ Claude's hand was on their back, Leonie and Raphael standing to one side, close to Byleth, in a solemn, supportive silence. Lorenz ran a hand through his hair, and Lysithea was looking away, choking back tears in an attempt to not cry. Ignatz had gently placed his hand on Lysithea's shoulder, which she begrudgingly accepted, not shrugging it off. _

_ Linhardt was leaning against a pillar, staring in Rhea's direction, eyes drooping shut. Dorothea and Bernadetta stood side by side, whispering to each other in hushed voices about... something? Byleth didn't remember. To their side was Sylvain, who stood in an unusually solemn silence, watching the scene with an indescribable gaze. _

_ Hilda was rubbing circles into Marianne's back as the blue-haired girl cried—the archbishop's death was hitting close to home for the girl. Out of the corner of their eye, Byleth could see Ashe hovering behind them, fidgeting, clearly wanting to open his mouth and speak but staying silent instead, watching Rhea whisper to Byleth. _

_ Flayn was standing on the other side of the room, crouching down next to the bed, Gently, she grasped Rhea’s hand, head bowed slightly to avoid others from seeing the fat tears that welled up in her eyes trailed down her cheeks. _

_ "Byleth, I must... tell you something." Rhea said, reaching up to cup Byleth's face with shaky hands. Byleth let her. "You know about... the goddess inside of you, correct?" Byleth nodded against her palm.  _

_ "I had... used a spell to keep her there. Normally, it would last long after my death, but..." She coughed, and Flayn let out a small noise. "When... When I took those hits for you, one hit me right where my crest was. The magic being used to keep the goddess in you... is a conscious effort on my part. When I die... the spell will go away, and therefore, so will the goddess' powers." _

_ The crest stone inside of them will go away. Disappear. Vanish. _

_ Byleth nodded, taking in Rhea's words. _

_ "I..." Rhea's hands fell. "You were... such a lovely... person..." _

_ Flayn's hand reached up, gently closing Rhea's eyes. Byleth felt the warmth fade from Rhea's body, a numb chill settling in its place. _

_ After a few moments had passed, Byleth found themselves wondering what it would be like when the crest stone containing Sothis inside of them would fade away. Claude's hand lifted from their back. _

_ Slowly, almost hesitantly, Byleth reached up to press their fingers against the veins in their neck. _

_ One thrum, two thrum, and then— _

_ There was a sudden stillness in their throat,  _ and their eyes widened—

* * *

"You rewound all the way back to the beginning of the school year!" Sothis yelled, and Byleth winced. She didn't need to tell them twice. "Why all the way back here? Why was your first feeling 'oh, back to school!'"

"I... don't know," Byleth said, eyebrows scrunching together. Why  _ did _ they rewind back there? Sothis sensed this thought and hummed, resting her hand against her face. She floated into the air slightly, kicking her feet as Byleth opened their mouth to speak. "I just remember panicking."

"Clearly," Sothis huffed, but there was no bite behind her words. Her face scrunched up before her eyes widened. "Wait a moment." 

She spun around and floated over to the nearby desk, green eyes gazing at the paper curiously. Byleth felt her train of thought go through their head— _ date, date, fourth month... 4/23. _

"You... traveled back to before you picked a class," Sothis observed. She  turned back to them and floated over, clapping her hands together. "What are we going to do?"

Byleth looked up at Sothis, blinking. “What?”

The goddess huffed, pouting. “I mean, about us going back in time,” Sothis clarified, waving one hand in the air, the ribbons wrapped around her wrists flowing and curling with the motion. "What are we going to do? Are we going to try to stop events, or are we going to—"

“We’re going to keep things the same,” Byleth said, causing Sothis to freeze, her green eyes widening. Byleth could see her thoughts in her expression.

_ Why? _

Byleth looked away from Sothis, avoiding her confused gaze. “...I didn’t mean to go back. If… If I keep things the same, and not change too much…” 

Byleth felt their grip tighten, squeezing their bedsheets tightly. “I’ll get back to that point. Naturally. Nobody will… Nobody will know.”

Sothis voiced Byleth's next thoughts. "As long as we don't reveal too much, that shouldn't be a problem." Then, she frowned, floating closer to Byleth, hovering above their bed. "But… what about our— _ your _ father?"

Byleth turned to one side, trying to look further away from Sothis. They didn’t reply.

After a while, Sothis sighed, floating away from Byleth. "...We can think about it later then. Now, it's late. We should sleep."

"I don't feel tired." Byleth threw their bedsheet to the side, hopping out of the bed. Sothis yelped and dodged to one side, forgetting that she could not get hurt. The blue-haired professor glanced up at Sothis, who only laughed sheepishly and floated closer to them.

Byleth stared at Sothis for a few moments longer, before shrugging. "Well, I'm going to visit the Golden Deer classroom. Just to look at it."

"Because you're attached to your precious little fawns, right?" Sothis teased. Byleth did not grace her with a response.

* * *

Byleth stared at the scene before them.

Claude and Sylvain were sitting across from each other. Claude was leaning back in his seat, feet kicked up on the table next to what looked like a pretty big game board. Byleth couldn't see his expression, but they could certainly see Sylvain's. On Sylvain's face was a look of displeasure. His eyes surveyed the board in front of him, deep in thought.

To the side of the room was Hilda, perched on a table with a big grin on her face. Surrounding her were piles of golden coins of what Byleth assumed was betting money, obviously associated with the two men playing nearby. 

Byleth noted the way she held up her hair in a high ponytail—tied together with a simple band. While it looked slightly similar to her appearance during the war, Byleth quickly dismissed that train of thought as a coincidence.

_ "Divine Pulses don't have others keep memories,"  _ Sothis' voice provided, which Byleth silently agreed with.

Hilda was probably just lazy and only bothered using one band. 

Gathered at the table behind Sylvain was a large group of students. Raphael was cheering loudly, a wide smile stretched across his face. Leonie had a similar grin, rubbing her hands together and whooping eagerly as Claude's hand moved forward, grabbing a booklet. 

Ignatz and Ashe were sitting next to each other, discussing something, staring at the book that Claude had picked up.

"It doesn't say that!" Sylvain huffed, snatching the booklet out of Claude's hands. Claude let out a laugh that made Byleth's heart twist. 

It was so joyful... Byleth almost wanted to tell Claude to keep that laugh forever. But they were observing, and nobody had noticed them yet, so they kept quiet.

As Sylvain flipped through the book, Dorothea wandered over to Sylvain and leaned over his shoulder, her eyes scrunching up in thought as she read alongside him. Byleth noticed how she wasn’t wearing her trademark hat. Didn't put it on, likely. It was late, after all.

"...Yeah, that's a totally legal move," Dorothea concluded.

"WHAT?!" Sylvain shouted, causing Bernadetta to squeak and hold a book up in front of her face. Sylvain slammed the book down, causing some of the pieces on the board to topple over. "That... that isn't fair! I didn't know that—"

"And you lost out on a vital opportunity," Claude teased, and Byleth could practically  _ feel _ the shit-eating grin that must have been plastered on his face.

"Must you guys be so loud?" Linhardt mumbled, head lifting from his arms, from where he sat at a nearby table. Seated next to him, Lysithea pressed a hand on her cheek, a look of irritation on her face. "It's just a board game."

Byleth spotted Lorenz nod alongside Linhardt’s words, but they also noticed Lorenz flip a coin into the left pile, which Hilda started giggling over. Hilda leaned over to Lorenz to comment on something, but her eyes glanced over his shoulder, catching sight of Byleth.

Hilda froze. Noticing that she had stopped, Lorenz glanced over to Byleth as well. Byleth couldn't find it in themselves to speak, hovering in the doorway of the classroom.

Lorenz spoke first. "Ah, it seems our guest from earlier has been made aware of our... intense game," He said, eyebrows creasing together as he looked over at Sylvain and Claude, who were staring at their board game. They seemingly hadn't noticed Hilda had stopped laughing, too engrossed in the board in front of them. Lorenz narrowed his eyes. "Honestly, you two. How could you make such a racket over a  _ board game _ ?"

Sylvain opened his mouth to argue, but his eyes met Byleth's, and he stopped.

_ What's with that? _

Byleth raised their arm in a wave and suddenly, all of the attention was on them. Claude spun around in his seat, his grin as shit-eating as Byleth had imagined it to be. "Oh, hey there, Byleth." He leaned against the table, flicking away his braid from his face with one hand. "I see you've noticed our board game. Care to join the crowd?" He lifted his hands in the air, waving around at the crowd in the room.

Byleth silently observed that the students gathered were their trusted squad—the students they taught during the school year, the students who followed them into a war five years later. The twinge of pain in their chest didn’t go unnoticed. They felt Sothis wince, but ignored her.

"No," Byleth said, trying to keep their voice as stoic and emotionless as it was at the beginning of the school year. "I don't even know you. I wanted to check out the noise."

"Well, check it out you have!" Claude laughed. "Seriously though. Care to join?" 

"No," Byleth repeated. Stepping away from the door, they kept their eyes on Claude. The boy had such a bright smile, but there was something about his eyes...

No. It was nothing. It was just the usual guarded smile he had at the beginning. That was all it had to be.

"Better sleep. I heard classes start again tomorrow." And with that, Byleth turned and left, their boots  _ click-clacking  _ against the stone floor. They overheard a slight whine from Hilda as they walked away, and couldn't help the smile that crawled across their face.

_ "This time, you'll push her more with axes?"  _ Sothis asked.

_ She was already pretty good, _ Byleth thought back, taking their usual path back to their room.  _ Might push her a bit sooner, but we're trying to limit our damage to the timeline. _

_ "Right." _ Byleth imagined Sothis putting her hands up to her cheeks, imagined her kicking her legs a bit. Probably because that  _ was  _ what Sothis was doing in their head.  _ "Just push people in the directions they eventually end up at sooner, so they're more prepared?" _

_ Yes. Don't want to risk more than that. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello folks! surprised at another chapter so soon? well, this won't be a normal occurrence, sadly.
> 
> In order to keep up a buffer (and keep myself paced), the schedule you guys should expect from this fic is every tuesday and saturday! Just thought y'all should know that


	3. Character Arc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claude rolled his eyes, turning to the board and writing above where he had written ‘Mock Battle’. _Sylvain joins because he's a thot._
> 
> Sylvain groaned, burying his head in his hands.  
\---  
the crew Plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> again edited by solsticeScriptures!

"So, this is our timeline." It was a general outline of each monthly mission that they could remember. The first mission was surrounded with dusty eraser marks, courtesy of the entire group’s inability to remember just  _ what  _ their first mission was all that time ago, at least up until Leonie recalled their time chasing bandits.

All the other missions written carefully in chalk on the board were free of the scuffed markings surrounding the first one, for they were much more memorable, and everybody could remember what took place.

“We know how these things  _ generally  _ go— _ duh _ ,” Claude started, circling the first few missions with white chalk, “so now it’s time to start conjecture based on—”

"Hold on, hold on!" Sylvain's hand shot into the air, and the eyes in the room turned to his direction. Claude rose an eyebrow, which Sylvain took as a cue to continue speaking. "I know we're supposed to be planning on what to do, but I just had this thought... Weren't we pretty different people back when the school year started? Wouldn't it be rather obvious if, say..." Sylvain trailed off, looking directly at Bernadetta.

Bernadetta blinked, before her eyes widened. "O—Oh! Right, I was... always in my room. Scared of interacting..." Her mouth twisted into a frown. "It would be obvious... if I went outside a lot for training..."

"Oh, goddess,” Dorothea mumbled, pressing a hand to her face. "I was... a lot happier then, wasn't I?"

Claude noticed the way Hilda reached out, wrapping one hand around Marianne's waist, and squeezing her hip. Marianne…

"And you, yourself, weren't very good at the start of this year," Claude said. Sylvain opened his mouth to object, before closing it, unable to defend himself. "Regardless… you bring up a pretty good point," Claude sighed, eyebrows creasing together.

_ Dammit. _ One more element into this whole mess.

He turned to the board, chalk  _ scritch-scratching  _ against the board as he drew a line about an inch below the diagram of the timeline. Below it, he wrote out ‘CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT’.

“Clearly, we’re going to have to act different in the monastery,” Claude started, tapping the board with his chalk, pointing to the words. “We can plan some of this out first—it’ll be the most obvious thing for outsiders to notice, and we really don’t want that.” Turning back to the group, he rolled the chalk around in his hand. His hand, which wasn’t worn and calloused from bow usage…

"Because of  _ Edelgard _ and her Slither crew," Hilda groaned, nose scrunching up. "Damn, that really sucks. Especially for Marianne! Back then, she was..." Hilda looked at Marianne, who was still looking at the ground.

"I... wasn't at my best," Marianne murmured, her voice hushed. That was a  _ very _ big understatement, and Claude noticed Ignatz wince upon hearing Marianne’s words. 

"While I wasn't as bad as Marianne..." Ignatz sighed, pressing his hands together. "I, ah… still had some self confidence issues."

Claude nodded at their statements. "Okay. So we have starting points for all of us, yeah? Okay." He turned back to the board and leaned down, writing out the months in the school year. He left long spaces beneath each moon, drawing a star next to their current moon, before he started writing beneath it.

_ Marianne is in a rough shape. _

_ Ignatz is very shy about himself. _

_ Bernadetta is unhealthily reclusive. _

"Hey!" Bernadetta shouted, voice shrill. Claude ignored her.

_ Sylvain is a fucking whore _

"Language," Sylvain muttered, but he didn’t bother denying it.

_ Dorothea is a happy flirt. _

_ Hilda is too lazy for her own good. _

_ Ashe is very idealistic? _

_ Lorenz is a prick. _

Lorenz huffed.

_ Leonie is a bit too Jeralt obsessed. _

_ Lysithea is too baby. _

He felt a paper ball collide with his head. Instinctively, Claude let out an “Ouch!” as it harmlessly bounced off of him. Glancing up, he caught sight of Lysithea, who pouted at him, eyes narrowing into a glare. 

... It would have been a much more effective look if she weren’t so small, the complete opposite of intimidating.

"Change that."

"Fiiiine."

_ Lysithea is trying too hard to be tough. _

"Better." Lysithea smiled, leaning back in her seat.

_ Linhardt is... ??? _

At that moment, Linhardt snored, and Lysithea glared at the sleeping boy next to her. A glare that he couldn't see, of course, because he was fast asleep.

"He's Linhardt," Dorothea supplied.

"Thanks." Claude rolled his eyes. He looked back at the board, eyes staring at the last of the empty space available for him to write in. Himself... what was with himself?

The scratching of chalk against the chalkboard sounded through the room.

_ Claude builds walls up too high and expects others to crash them down. _

"That's—" Sylvain made a surprised noise. "I didn't know that."

"There's a lot you don't know about me, even if you know more than others," Claude replied, and Sylvain shut his mouth. 

"Okay. We have our younger selves here, on this board." Claude turned towards everyone, tapping the chalk against the board. "So clearly, we have to act like this. But I think we should speed it up."

"Speed it up?" Dorothea tilted her head. "How so?"

"Make us progress in a ' _ natural _ '—” Claude hands rose, fingers forming air quotes, "—way, but sped up slightly in order to make us... well, ourselves." He looked around the classroom, observing just how many people appeared to be lost in thought. Claude hummed to himself as a thought sprung to mind, then waved it off.

"Well," Sylvain started, causing Claude to glance over at him. "We don't want to fall back to.. you know, our past selves too much. What if we arranged meetings every month?" 

Claude nodded, eyes widening slightly. He had  _ just  _ been thinking about doing that.

"Just a day to hang out, get our personalities aligned and check in, before returning to our... dangerous selves." Sylvain shuddered, rubbing a hand up and down his arm. "...I really don't like the way I flirted, during school."

Marianne nodded. "It... it would especially help for me. Falling into old thoughts is... really dangerous for someone like me." 

Hilda squeezed Marianne's hip again.

"Meetings every month, then!" Claude turned back to the board, and wrote _ ‘MEETING’  _ under every month. As he wrote, he spoke, "We should probably have set a date, but we can shelve that for the next meeting."

"Which is going to be?" Hilda asked, with an annoyed sigh. Claude paused, hand hovering over the board, looking over at Hilda.

"...Right after the mock battle," Claude decided. "Everyone else will be tired, Teach is likely going to be tired, and we can have this room to ourselves again."

Hilda paused, considering Claude’s words before beaming at him. "Makes sense! Everyone should be able to make it—after all, we don't have much on our schedules except for this!"

"I could have a date," Sylvain pointed out, though his voice trailed off as he spoke. Dorothea huffed at him and Sylvain rolled his eyes, looking away. "Never mind, we can all make it." 

"We can do the bulk of our planning next time." Claude finished writing the word  _ ‘MEETING’ _ beneath each month, before moving back up to the timeline part of the board, eyebrows furrowing. 

He turned his gaze towards Sylvain, who appeared interested in reading the board, arms crossed. When he noticed Claude staring at him, he tilted his head to one side, giving him a wink and a smile. Claude winked back, before tearing his gaze away from Sylvain to glance over at Ashe.

Ashe too, was staring intently at the board. He didn’t seem to notice Claude staring at him, rubbing his chin as he squinted at the words Claude had scribbled down on the board. 

Next was Linhardt, who was fast asleep, head buried in his arms, Lysithea was staring at him warily, an indescribable look on her face. 

To the side was Dorothea, who locked eyes with Claude as he looked over at her. Though her eyes were serious and her expression was steady, the way that her hands fiddled with her hair, twirling it absentmindedly around her fingers, betrayed how nervous she was actually feeling.

Lastly, Bernadetta was next to Dorothea, jolting as Claude glanced over to her. She fiddled with her hoodie strings, biting her lips as she waited for Claude to speak, avoiding his gaze.

Claude turned back to stare at Linhardt. “...Someone wake Linhardt up. This will concern him.”

Almost instantly, Lysithea smacked Linhardt's head, as if she had been prepared to do so for a while. The boy let out a pained groan, blearily opening his eyes. "What… was that for?"

"Before we end this meeting for today—" Claude tapped his chalk against the board, next to the timeline section, "—we still need all of us in the same class. It's easier to do anything we plan that way. Since you guys are part of different classes, we need to figure out when it would be natural for you guys to join."

"Right away," Sylvain said, causing the entire classroom to laugh.

Claude rolled his eyes, turning to the board and writing above where he had written ‘ _ Mock Battle’ _ .  _ Sylvain joins because he's a thot. _

Sylvain groaned, burying his head in his hands.

"I'm not wrong though," Claude pointed out. "Anyways, we need to think of good excuses too, because it's very likely that it's just us that remember, and again—"

"We don't want people knowing we know about the future," Hilda interrupted, finishing Claude’s sentence for him, her eyes drooping with boredom. Claude rolled his eyes at her.  _ It’s worth repeating, guys.  _

"So... who among the recruits should be next?"

Slowly, Linhardt raised his hand. "Sometime soon, Hanneman gets all excited, yelling about how the Professor has a rare crest, and I am all about crests." Something flashed in his eyes, and he sat up a little straighter. "And it would give me a good excuse to rummage through his research. I based my own experiments and notes off the notes he had made. He  _ has _ been alive longer than I have, after all." 

Linhardt's eyes shifted over to Lysithea. "It would be a greater excuse to... get further in the crest removal project I was starting when we were so rudely moved back in time."

The entire room’s attention was on Lysithea now. The small girl's mouth was clamped tightly shut, and there was something gleaming in her eyes, something she was clearly trying to blink away. After a while, she spoke, "I'll help you with that! After all, I was going to help you back then. Who knows if I would've been able to live long enough to see the results..."

The silence returned. The reminder of Lysithea's tragically short life made this fortunate happenstance even more precious.

After a few moments, Claude wrote above the  _ ‘Mock Battle’ _ part of the timeline,  _ Linhardt joins for Crest Reasons. _

"Got that right," Linhardt said, yawning. He blinked a bit. "I don't remember ever being this tired... I really did tire easily, huh..."

"I could be next!" Ashe chipped in. "After all, I have to be there before... well..." He trailed off, before continuing. "I just... want to be involved in any plans for my father."

"Understood." Claude wrote Ashe’s name before  _ ‘Lonato Mission' _ on the board. "Which leaves us with Dorothea and Bernadetta."

"I'll go first, and Bernie will follow. Isn't that right?" Dorothea turned to Bernadetta, who stared at Dorothea with wide eyes, before softening up and nodding. Dorothea chuckled, turning back to Claude. "Just write us somewhere after Lonato—oh, but soon after him."

"Gotcha." Claude followed the request, writing their names next to each other on the board. After he finished writing the ‘a’ in Bernadetta's name, he stepped away from the board, heaving a sigh of relief. "Step one of planning—done. Step two to come after the mock battle." 

At the mention of it, Claude paused. "Okay, so. Plan for the mock battle." He straightened up, pointing a finger in the air. "It's supposed to be a measure of our abilities, so I say we can have fun with it."

Hilda shot him a quizzical look. "But aren't we supposed to—"

"Our bodies aren't used to what we know in the future." Claude held up his hands. While they were slightly rough from him using a bow prior to arriving at the monastery, they weren't covered in lines from the constant,  _ constant _ use of it during the war. "Even if we tried, I bet we would fail, or at the very least, not succeed like we could in the future."

"Ohhh." Hilda's eyes widened. "So, like... we can try, and if we fail, it can be blamed on us not knowing the proper form?"

"And we can show we know more than we used to if we at least try it out!" Ashe said, beaming. "And it isn't obvious to people not in the know, so it's just us accessing our skills!"

"Exactly." Claude snapped his fingers. "So that's our plan. Golden Deer is still going to beat you Black Eagles and Blue Lions, you know."

Sylvain gasped dramatically, raising a hand to his chest in a mocking exaggeration of the noble next to him. "How dare you suggest that the Golden Deer are objectively the best class! Let us try and then  _ immediately _ fail against your golden might!"

Claude burst out laughing. Hilda started slapping the table, letting out wheezes of laughter. Even Lorenz let out a chuckle, hiding his smile behind his fist.

"Sylvain..." Ashe said, a bit of laughter cropping into his voice. "Don't you want our class to win?"

"Right now, we're the Golden Deer, Ashe!" Sylvain put a hand on Ashe's shoulder, spreading his other hand dramatically across the air. "Doesn't matter what our class alignment says we are, for we are the Golden Deer... marvel in our..." 

Sylvain couldn’t take it anymore. He began to cackle, bending over in his fits of laughter. As he struggled to get a grip on his uncontrollable laughter, forcing himself to straighten up, he caught sight of something on one of the nearby bookshelves.

As his laughter trailed off, Sylvain stood up, walking over to grab a game board that Claude recognized as his own. “...I know this board game. It’s pretty intense one-v-one.” He let his hand slide across the board, before turning back to Claude, board game in his hands.

The two of them met eyes.

Claude couldn't help the smirk that crossed his face.

"Want to challenge me?" Claude asked, and Sylvain chuckled.

"You bet."

Hilda's hand shot up in the air as she hopped out of her seat beside Marianne, who was hiding her smile behind one hand. "I'll be in charge of the betting pools!"

* * *

Claude moved his pieces across the board and he leaned back, letting a smirk overtake his face. Sylvain was sitting dumbfounded across from him.  _ Finally, _ Claude thought,  _ My plan has come to fruition, and Sylvain is no longer ahead. _

He had to admit, he was getting worried at some points during the game. Sylvain was very,  _ very _ good at the board game, that much was clear. But he  _ had  _ noticed Sylvain ignoring a small rules loophole that he always used, and well...

Claude kicked his feet up onto the table, crossing them in a cocky manner. Sylvain’s eyes narrowed, focused entirely on the board in front of him. Absentmindedly, he kept opening and closing his hand, clenching his fist tightly as he grit his teeth.

Wordlessly, Claude picked up the game booklet, listening to Leonie and Raphael’s gasps from behind Sylvain. He waved it in front of his opponent’s face, and couldn’t resist laughing as Sylvain snatched the book out of his hands.

Sylvain was pretty smart. He could figure out that Claude’s move was totally legal.

"It doesn't say that!" Sylvain complained, flipping through the booklet pages until he got to a certain page. Dorothea wandered over from her seat and leaned over Sylvain's shoulder, her lip quivering as she read alongside Sylvain.

He could hear Hilda losing her shit next to them. He couldn't help his own laugh from escaping.

"...Yeah, that's totally a legal move," Dorothea concluded, in favor of Claude. Claude watched as Sylvain's face passed through the stages of grief in mere seconds.

"WHAT?!" Sylvain shouted, and Claude registered a squeak to their side from Bernadetta. Sylvain slammed the booklet down onto the table, game pieces falling over, and the giddiness in Claude's heart grew. This was amusing, even if it was only because he had caught the other man off guard. "That... that isn't fair! I didn't know that-"

"And you lost out on a vital opportunity," Claude teased, feeling his smile grow even wider. He watched Sylvain fumble, attempting to speak, to try and refute what was happening in front of him, but he couldn't.

"Must you guys be so loud?" He heard Linhardt mumble from a nearby table. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of him lifting his head from his arms to stare at them. Next to him, Lysithea shot him an irritated glare as Linhardt continued. "It's just a board game."

Claude rolled his eyes.  _ Just a board game.  _ It was a game of strategy. A game of  _ planning _ . A game of  _ wits _ . It wasn't _ just _ a board game. Claude spotted Sylvain rolling his eyes as well, having gotten over some of his rage. 

Sylvain leaned forward and started to adjust the fallen pieces, moving them back into place.

A voice to their side—which turned out to be Lorenz—suddenly spoke. "Ah, it seems our guest from earlier has been made aware of our... intense game." There was a pause. Claude could feel Lorenz glaring sharply at his back. "Honestly, you two. How could you make such a racket over a  _ board game _ ?"

Sylvain opened his mouth to respond, but Claude noticed his eyes move, and his mouth stopped.

_ Our guest from earlier _ ... Oh, Teach! Right.

Claude spun around in his seat, keeping his grin on his face as his eyes passed over Byleth's form. "Oh, hey there, Byleth." He leaned back on the table, swatting the braid out of his face. Byleth's face seemed unmoved. Unchanging. "I see you've noticed our board game. Care to join the crowd?"

Claude watched Byleth's face. For a few moments, he thought he saw the edge of their mouth twitch. After a brief moment, though, their mouth returned to a flat line.

"No," Byleth said, voice as flat and emotionless as he remembered it being at the beginning of the school year. "I don't even know you. I wanted to check out the noise."

"Well, check it out you have!" Claude laughed. A thought went through his mind. Maybe he could get them to open up earlier this time? "Seriously though. Care to join?"

Byleth's expression didn't seem to change. "No," they repeated. They stepped away from the door, and Claude couldn't help the disappointment that settled in his stomach. 

That wasn't going to happen, was it? They were without their Teach.

"Better sleep. I heard classes start again tomorrow." And with that, Byleth turned on their heel and left. Claude could hear the faint sound of their footsteps fading away. 

Hilda groaned, dragging a hand down her face. "Ugh... school." 

Marianne lifted a hand to her mouth and giggled.

"A necessary evil." Sylvain sighed, shaking his head. "And we have to act like... well, act like we're babies. That's not going to be fun."

"Out of all of us," Claude chuckled, turning back to their board game, "I think I might actually have it the easiest."

"Lucky." Hilda snorted, placing her hands on her hips. She scowled. "Scheming little house leader."

"Lazy little frontliner." Claude leaned forward, staring intently at the board game again. "Well, I haven't won yet... Let's continue playing."

* * *

Claude tapped the empty book with a finger, letting his eyes glance around his room. He attempted a bit of a clean up earlier—placing books on tables and sweeping some dust and dirt—but his mind always drifted back to thinking about the plans they had made in the classroom.

He had put off planning for the timeline for after the mock battle... but his mind was racing, and he couldn't rest when he had so much on his plate. If he could take some of the burden off of his team, make most of the plans and get their input later, in case of an oversight... That would probably be for the best.

He had only lifted up his quill, opening the book to a blank page, when he heard a knock at his door. Claude let out a yelp, before shutting his mouth tightly, feeling his face heat up. What was he, seventeen? Again, he put his quill to paper, trying his best to think, but the knock sounded again.

"Claude." Sylvain's voice was muffled, talking from the other side of the door. "I know you're awake. You never really sleep much."

_ Oh.  _

Claude's shoulders loosened. He put the quill down and got up from his desk, walking over to the wooden door. "Should've just said it was you," Claude said, opening the door. He opened his mouth to say something else, but paused upon catching sight of Sylvain's face.

Sylvain had been crying.

Wordlessly, Claude stepped to the side and gestured for his visitor to enter. Sylvain offered Claude a weak smile, gravitating towards the bed. Claude closed the door behind his guest, watching carefully to make sure Sylvain didn't accidentally sit on one of the many books scattered across his bed.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of Margrave Gautier visiting my quarters?" Claude said, keeping his smile on his face. He knew full well that it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"You usually plan late at night, right?" Sylvain rubbed at his red eyes, inhaling deeply. Sylvain then placed his hands back onto the bed, spreading his legs apart. If it weren’t for his wet cheeks and red eyes, it would be difficult to tell that he had been crying. "If you wouldn't mind, can I join you?"

Claude walked back to his desk, hovering around his chair, but not sitting down just yet. Instead, he leaned against the desk, staring at Sylvain seated on his bed. "Join me? In planning? Not that I don't love this offer, but what would motivate you to want to join?"

Sylvain's eyes moved away from Claude's, instead staring at the cover of the book sitting closest to him. "... I want to offer my own perspective on Kingdom issues. You know about some of it, but you can't know everything, and with the Miklan mission and all..."

Claude paused, before he nodded in understanding. "I see. Well, a planning partner is always a good thing, I say." Sitting down at his desk, he picked up his quill again. "Let's start with plans for the Lonato mission. Ashe will be available to us by then, so we can use him in our plans."

"Right. Ashe will definitely want to try and spare his father... perhaps he can go ahead?"

"Oh! Lonato was carrying that letter that was that distraction plot for the assault at the Rite of Rebirth... maybe Ashe..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you may have noticed that this fic is now in a series.... well, sometime tomorrow, i am planning on releasing... something. for all you sylvain lovers out there- relating to the sylvain in this fic ;)


	4. First Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They were going to go to their class. To their precious little deer.
> 
> Byleth could hear Sothis beginning to ask them something—a remark about being impatient to visit their students, they were certain—but her voice grew silent as Byleth opened the door— and almost walked right into Sylvain.  
\---  
Byleth chooses the Golden Deer again.

"The Golden Deer," Byleth decided.

They saw surprise flash across Hanneman and Manuela's faces. Distantly, they wondered— had that happened the first time round? Did they just ignore it back then, quietly waiting to depart to teach the first day of class?

"I'll take the Black Eagles, then," Manuela said, smoothly recovering from her surprise, flashing Byleth a smile. Next to Byleth, Hanneman continued to gawk, still reeling from their decision.

"I... well, I suppose I will take the Blue Lions," Hanneman huffed, crossing his arms. "Really, taking the reason class away from the reason professor."

"Maybe your magic skills will scare them straight, or maybe your attitude—"

Seteth’s voice cut through the squabbling, interrupting the two. "Enough."

The two other professors snapped back to attention, muttering apologies below their breaths. Byleth had to fight off the smile that threatened to creep onto their face. Their fellow professors were such a joy. "Your heart has made its choice, then,” Seteth said.

"I trust you will lead them well," Rhea said, a soft, serene smile on her face. "Now, go. Your students are waiting for you."

Byleth bowed to Rhea, then immediately turned and started walking out. Distantly, they could hear a bit of faint conversation between Hanneman and Manuela, but it faded as they approached the door. 

They were going to go to their class. To their precious little deer.

Byleth could hear Sothis beginning to ask them something—a remark about being impatient to visit their students, they were certain—but her voice grew silent as Byleth opened the door— and almost walked right into Sylvain.

The student let out a yelp, jolting backwards, hands held up in front of him. “Whoa, hey Professor! Didn’t know you were going to be done so soon!

"Why are you here?" Byleth asked, shoving down the panic that rose in their throat. They could only hope that their voice wasn’t trembling as they spoke. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"Well, yes, but..." Sylvain rubbed the back of his neck, letting out a laugh. "Well, I heard about your skill from Claude—you know, after he trounced me in that game last night." He put on a lazy smile, eyes moving up to stare at Byleth's face. "He also told me that you were gonna become a professor!"

Byleth sighed. "...I thought Manuela told him not to tell anyone."  _ Already, something has changed. _

_ "That is the nature of doing things even slightly differently. It is said that the flap of a butterfly wing could change the very course of fate! Let us hope it is less mitigating."  _ Sothis’ voice echoed through their head, and Byleth fought back another sigh.

"Hah, well, I kind of pushed him into it. Anyway!" Sylvain waved his hand in the air. "I was thinking—I  _ kinda _ overheard you picking the Golden Deer class, and I think I should transfer."

Byleth blinked. 

Once. 

Twice. 

Faintly, they could hear Sothis make a confused noise in their head. "Already?" Byleth couldn't help the confused tone from slipping into their previously emotionless voice. 

"Yes! I truly believe that I could...  _ benefit  _ from your teaching." Sylvain laughed. "Now, come on. Lead me to your class."

Truthfully, Byleth didn't want to say no to Sylvain, as irritating as he was. After all, they said yes the first time he asked. So Byleth shrugged, walking away. 

They heard Sylvain hiss a small “Yes!” before running after them, following Byleth down the stairs.

* * *

Byleth pushed open the doors to the Golden Deer classroom, with Sylvain in tow. As the doors creaked open, the students glanced up from their seats, with many doing a double take at the sight of both Byleth and Sylvain.

"Hello, Deers. I am your new professor, Byleth Eisner," they announced, walking into the classroom. "You may have seen me yesterday."

"Wait. You're our new professor?" Hilda piped up, and Byleth glanced at her. She was still wearing her hair up in a ponytail, exactly the same as the night before. "And I thought you were going to be one of the knights!"

"Hey, did you pick us because you wanted to get to know me better?" Claude said, leaning over his desk. "That's sweet." 

And then Claude’s eyes caught sight of the figure trailing behind Byleth. With an amused look, he shook his head. “Really Teach? It’s the first day, and you recruit Sylvain?”

"He asked me," Byleth responded, watching Sylvain chuckle nervously. “Sylvain, sit down. I'll sort out your papers later." 

Byleth walked towards the front of their room, approaching their desk. As they moved, they couldn’t help glancing around, watching their students, their little deer, their trusted allies—

_ “Byleth.”  _ Sothis’ voice jolted them out of their memories, snapping back to reality.

Ignatz raised his hand. "If... If you're going to be our teacher, what are you going to teach us?" Although his voice shook, he was speaking loud and clear. "There's a lot to learn from the child of the former Captain of the Knights of Serios!"

"And even if they weren't," Leonie said, "they're a child of the legendary Blade Breaker. Jeralt, the Blade Breaker! Oooh, that name sends chills down my spine!" Leonie stared at Byleth straight in the eye. "You better live up to your dad's power in battle, that's all I'm saying!"

_ "Just as dad obsessed as before," _ Sothis sighed.

“Just because they’re the child of the former captain doesn’t mean you can put those expectations on them,” Hilda pointed out, frowning. Leaning back into her chair, she threaded a hand through her ponytail, combing through her hair with her fingers. 

Byleth was reminded of a quiet night with Hilda, reminded of Hilda staring up at the sky and _ telling them _ —

Hilda’s voice dragged them out of their thoughts. “...Right, Marianne?”

"R—Right!" Marianne stuttered, voice unusually loud. As everyone in the room stared at her, she seemed to wilt. "I, uh... suppose..." she whispered, voice trailing off.

"Regardless, it will be  _ great _ to see their skill in battle." Lysithea leaned forward on her desk, a small smile on her face. "I bet Raphael would love to have a fistfight with you, Professor."

"That's right!" Raphael pumped his fist in the air. Ignatz tried to hide his face behind his hands as the class’s attention turned to their direction. "And then we can go grab a bite to eat together, after you probably kick my ass!"

"Rightfully so," Lorenz scoffed. Byleth couldn’t help gritting their teeth.

Lorenz... was  _ not _ the best at first. 

Byleth forced their expression back into their usual, stoic mask, listening to Lorenz continue. "If you insist on being so... informal to our Professor, then I will give them the respect they deserve."

"I'm sure Teach doesn't mind." Claude looked over to Byleth, and the smile he flashed them filled Byleth with the urge to smile back.  _ Don't do that. Don't do that. _ "Right, Teach?"

"Call me whatever you're comfortable with."

"Aw  _ yeah _ . I know I'll love this class, Teach." Sylvain kicked his feet up on the table. "I knew I made the right choice switching over."

As Lorenz rolled his eyes, making a disgusted noise, Byleth noticed the way that Claude glanced at Sylvain.

They could have sworn that he had given him a concerned glance.

Byleth didn’t bother dwelling on that, instead picking up the chalk on their desk— _ Why is the end of this chalk round?— _ and writing their name on the board.

* * *

Byleth walked into the training grounds with a meal in their hands. 

It was lunchtime in the monastery—a brief break from talking about assignments and a possible training schedule for the class.

As they walked over to a nearby bench, they paused. Their eyes drifted to the two people standing in the middle of the training grounds—Lysithea and Dorothea. Byleth couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but it was clear that the duo had arranged to meet up.

After they talked, Byleth watched as the two girls walked to separate sides of the room. The professor settled down on a bench, placing their meal carefully to their side.

Lysithea and Dorothea pulled out wooden training swords, and pointed them at each other. After a few moments, the sword in Lysithea's hands swirled with a purple and black aura, and Byleth heard her cheer echo through the room. Without a moment's notice, the smaller girl reeled her arm back, before flinging the sword at Dorothea.

_ "That's definitely not how you throw a sword," _ Sothis sighed.

Dorothea yelped and jumped away from the sword, which had clattered on the ground in front of her. Byleth’s eyes widened as the sword exploded into magical shrapnel. Jumping from their seat, they watched as some of the purple shards flew towards Lysithea, a scream dying in their throat.

Lysithea simply waved her hands, and the shrapnel deflected into a training dummy. Dorothea peeked her head out from behind a pillar, hat falling off of her head. She shouted something that Byleth couldn't hear, and Lysithea laughed, saying something back.

Byleth wished they were closer, but they had to make sure they weren't noticed. They had a feeling this was not meant to be seen. Quietly, they picked up their meal, sneaking behind a pillar to observe from a distance.

_ Sothis, _ Byleth thought,  _ Did this happen last time? _

_ "It... maybe? We were in the dining hall on the first day, so perhaps we simply didn't see this." _

Dorothea sighed, holding up her weapon again. Her eyebrows furrowed, eyes focusing on her sword. After a while, the sword burst into flames. Dorothea dropped it, and Lysithea instantly threw her hands out. A dark orb burst from her hands and smashed into the flaming sword, shattering it and preventing it from exploding.

Dorothea sighed, but there was a smile was on her face. Lysithea walked up to her, patting her on the shoulder, her mouth moving as she leaned closer to Dorothea's ear. After a few whispers, Dorothea covered her mouth with one hand, shoulders bouncing as she laughed.

_ Are they planning something? _

_ "I hope Lysithea isn't ruining your chances with the mock battle!"  _ Sothis groaned, and Byleth could practically envision her flopping onto her back on her throne.  _ "That would be rather troublesome. Perhaps this is another effect of you walking in on that game?" _

_ I hate butterflies. _

Lysithea turned around and she grabbed Dorothea's hand, pointing at the exit. Dorothea nodded, and the two of them walked towards the door, talking along the way.

As they passed the pillar Byleth was hiding behind, their conversation drifted towards Byleth's ears.

"...try not to injure anyone, so your trick isn't useful yet."

"Well, yes, but  _ imagine  _ the possibilities! Teaching people how to..."

Byleth watched as the doors slowly shut. They wondered what the two of them could possibly need exploding swords for.

…Well, they still needed to eat. Byleth looked at the meal in their hands and hoped that it was still warm.

_ "I doubt it." _

Byleth grimaced.  _ Thanks, Sothis. _

* * *

Byleth sat down in front of Seteth, feeling nervous. The other man was pacing around the office, staring at something in his hands, and Byleth couldn't help themselves from running their finger over the brim of their shorts.

_ "This feels familiar,"  _ Sothis observed, obviously trying to help. Unfortunately, it wasn't working.

After a while of pacing, Seteth turned and held out a book. Its cover was hand-drawn, but beautiful. There were two people on the cover—if Byleth were to guess, a man and a woman, probably in love . Seteth had a pained look on his face, clearly trying to hold something back.

"...Rhea demands I find a use for this," Seteth eventually said. "So I shall hand it to you. I don't want it in the library, but if Rhea found out I burned it..." 

He shuddered, shaking his head. "...No. I can't imagine that. Please, take this. Do what you want with it."

Byleth reached out, taking the book into their hands. It... looked familiar, for sure. The entire scene felt familiar, but it must have happened so long ago that Byleth couldn't remember it.

"I will do my best," Byleth promised, looking up from the book. "Is that all you called me here for?"

Seteth paused, staring at Byleth like he wasn't expecting that question. Then he smiled. "...Well, yes. You can go see your father, if you so wish."

_ Father.  _ Byleth's throat tightened.  _ My father—my alive father—my— _

Byleth rose, letting their hand brush gently over the book.  _ This book will do for some light reading _ , they supposed. 

"Thank you," Byleth said, bowing slightly before turning and walking out of the office.


	5. Childhood.... friends?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ignatz stepped away from the door, running back to his desk as the door slammed open. Standing in the doorway, illuminated by the sunlight behind her, was a very, _very_ pissed off Ingrid, hands clenched by her side. In front of her was Ashe, kneeling in the doorway, a lockpick in his hand. He looked up at Sylvain and mouthed _“Sorry”_.  
\---  
sylvain avoids his childhood friends. you know, like you do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> solsticeScriptures edited this!

Sylvain stretched his arms, yawning.

Byleth had already left the classroom for the day, leaving behind the students who were finishing the last of their assignments, all due the next day. It had been a long week for poor,  _ poor _ Sylvain. Byleth had talked about things he already knew about, and the assignments were similar to, if not the same as, the assignments he had in the last timeline. Even though he hadn’t joined the Golden Deer before the mock battle previously, he was sure of it.

_ Ugh.  _ Ignatz and Lysithea were still there, writing down the last few answers for their assignments like good little kids who did their work.

Sylvain glanced down at his paper, skimming through the answers he scribbled down. Apparently he was a good little kid as well. He picked up the paper and stood from his desk, walking to the front of the classroom to drop the assignment at the Professor’s desk.

He was about to leave the classroom when distantly, he registered Hilda's voice. "Oh, Ingrid! What are you doing here?"

Sylvain  _ froze _ . 

Slowly,  _ hesitantly _ , he turned towards the open doorway of the Golden Deer classroom, looking at Hilda. The pink-haired girl was glancing at him. Sylvain could have sworn he saw Hilda mouth “ _ She's looking pretty angry” _ , but he wasn't too sure, especially with the distance between them. 

"I'm waiting for Sylvain.” Ingrid’s voice was faint, muffled from afar. “ He came out of here with Claude yesterday. I know he's in your class now ."

"Oh... our new recruit?" Hilda turned back to face Ingrid, who was  _ clearly _ hiding behind the wall, hoping to shock Sylvain when he walked out. "Hm... well I think he's still in the classroom."

"Ignatz," Sylvain said, his brain throwing together a plan using the two people in the room. "Ignatz, lock the door."

Ignatz glanced up from his work, staring at the open doorway. After a moment, he walked over and slammed it shut, locking it tightly. He turned around to face Sylvain, mouth opening to ask him something, but a loud  _ BANG _ against the door caused Ignatz to yelp, whipping around to stare at the wooden door.

"Oh," Ignatz breathed.

"Yeah," Sylvain said, taking a deep breath. "I... have a feeling Ingrid  _ might _ be angry at me."

"For leaving the Blue Lions one member short for the mock battle," Lysithea commented, still writing on her paper. Her tone was nonchalant, as if the entire situation didn’t faze her—and knowing Lysithea, it probably didn’t. "She’s probably angry about that."

Sylvain dragged a hand down his face, groaning. "Great."

Something slammed onto the door again, causing Ignatz to jump. Sylvain watched as he breathed in, sitting down in front of the door, cross-legged. The way he stared intently at the door… It somewhat reminded Sylvain of guard duty, really.

In a way, Ignatz was doing guard duty.

"Sylvain! Get out of there and _ talk to me! _ "

The guarded thing was  _ him _ .

Sylvain crossed the room and slid into the chair in front of Lysithea, turning around to face her. The girl looked up from her papers, raising an eyebrow quizzically.

"Lysithea," he said, trying to put on his begging voice. "Please...  _ please _ warp me out of here."

Lysithea stared at him, her mouth twisting into a frown. "Really?"

" _ Yes! _ " Sylvain reached out and grabbed one of Lysithea's hands. "I-I don't want to confront Ingrid right now, and she's going to keep banging on that door until either I come out or she  _ breaks it down. _ "

Lysithea stared at their held hands, eyebrows furrowing with thought. After a moment of thought—and more loud thumping on the door—she looked back up at Sylvain. "...I would love to say yes, but… One, it would be suspicious for me to help you, the womanizer. And two, even if I could help you, this body—" The girl motioned up and down her small body with her free hand, "—is not used to higher level magic spells, and if I tried, I think I would leave you stranded somewhere."

Sylvain felt the warmth drain from his face. 

Oh.  _ No. _ His plan fell through.

"Fffffuck," Sylvain swore, pulling his hand away from Lysithea's. The girl continued to stare at him as he got up and started to pace the room. "Fuck, fuck,  _ fuck _ , what am I supposed to tell her? Oh, Byleth is hot? But everyone knows I usually go after girls, I can't just easily—"

"I'm going to get Ashe!" Ingrid's voice filtered through the door, causing Sylvain to freeze. He stared at the door, eyes wide.

Ashe  _ wouldn't. _

There was silence. Sylvain could practically feel his heartbeat in his ears, thumping wildly, as he slowly backed into Byleth's desk.

After a few more moments of heart-pounding silence, Ignatz got up, turning around to meet eyes with Sylvain.

"Ashe says he's sorry," Ignatz said, and Sylvain felt the color drain from his face.  _ Again. _

_ I thought you were going to protect those who needed to be protected, Ashe! _

Ignatz stepped away from the door, running back to his desk as the door slammed open. Standing in the doorway, illuminated by the sunlight behind her, was a very,  _ very _ pissed off Ingrid, hands clenched by her side. In front of her was Ashe, kneeling in the doorway, a lockpick in his hand. He looked up at Sylvain and mouthed  _ “Sorry”. _

Ingrid stepped carefully over Ashe, giving the boy a small nod, then bolted for Sylvain. Sylvain’s breathing hitched as he tried to back up further. Unfortunately, his back was already to the desk, and he wasn’t about to try leaping over it. The table had Byleth’s papers, and he wasn’t about to ruin the neat stacks of assignments by jumping over the desk to escape Ingrid.

"What made you think that joining the Golden Deer right away was a great idea?" Ingrid yelled at him, jabbing a finger against his chest. Despite her shorter stature, she was  _ absolutely _ intimidating him. "We had a plan! For the Mock Battle! With  _ you  _ as a key part of it! But, noooo!" Ingrid's nose wrinkled. "You care about the hotness of some  _ other _ professor rather than the battle strategy we were thinking up— _ with you in it! _ "

Sylvain gulped.

"Don't you care about our plans? You have some pretty good contributions once in a while!" Ingrid grasped his shoulders, shaking him as she scolded him loudly. "And now you're running off because you find someone else hot, and probably are looking at all your classmates that way!"

Sylvain let his eyes drift away from Ingrid's face to look around the classroom. 

Lysithea lifted her hand in the air and tossed her paper towards the table. Instead of the paper floating to the ground, it seemed like Lysithea had used a  _ tiny _ bit of magic to make it blow past him and Ingrid, landing on the pile of papers on the desk. Lysithea cheered to herself, before getting up from her desk and leaving.

Meanwhile, Ignatz walked back to the open door, and he held out a hand for Ashe to take. Ashe glanced up at the other boy, a smile returning to his face as he grabbed Ignatz’s palm. Ignatz pulled Ashe up from the floor—and, through the berating that Ingrid was giving him, Sylvain noticed that Ignatz had leaned a  _ little bit _ closer to Ashe to whisper something that made Ashe's eyes widen.

And then the two of them left.

Leaving him all alone in a room with nothing save for Ingrid yelling at him.

"...Are you even listening to me?"

Sylvain's eyes snapped back to Ingrid, who looked even angrier than before. He had to distract her somehow. His eyes darted around, and an escape plan formed in his head.

"I was thinking…”

"About what? Girls?" Ingrid leaned back, crossing her arms.

Sylvain ducked away from Ingrid, dashing to the side. He ran through the classroom, yelling, "ABOUT _THIS_! BYE!"

He sprinted away from the Golden Deer classroom, ignoring Ingrid yelling after him. His feet slammed against the monastery grass as he ran out of the Officer’s Academy, ignoring Hilda and Claude as they tried to suppress their tears of laughter.

* * *

Sylvain let his heart pounding in his ears as he pressed himself against the door, listening for footsteps of any kind. 

As time passed by without hearing anything, his heartbeat slowed. Heaving a sigh of relief, he finally turned his attention to the training grounds, turning away from the door.

Felix was there—to no one’s surprise—and he was busy smashing his sword against a dummy, arms and legs gliding as he practiced the same movements over and over. Sylvain found himself mentally chastising some of Felix’s moves— _ You’re supposed to position yourself to be able to block opposing blows, you’re wide open _ —and had to tear his gaze away from the swordsman to keep himself from saying anything out loud.

The Mock Battle was soon. He may as well get some practice in, since he was already at the training grounds. He walked over to the weapons rack and pulled out a wooden lance, letting himself stare at it for a brief moment, turning it in his hands. It would do, but he remembered the training weapons being a bit more… sturdy. A bit more  _ heavy. _ But this one was light.

_ Well, whatever.  _ He approached a training dummy, and stepped into position. He looked over his form, cursing at himself silently for sliding into form improperly. He corrected his stance, letting his hands slide down the lance.  _ Okay. Proper position.  _

_ Go. _

He leaped forward, stabbing his lance towards the training dummy. 

He missed. 

Grimacing, he twisted his lance, turning his miss into a swipe, registering the scrape of his training lance against the dummy. The lance barely grazed the dummy though, causing him to step back, before trying for another stab, which only barely missed.

He pulled his lance back again, stepping to the side in a movement that made sense to his brain, but not to his body. Sylvain stumbled, feet sliding unnaturally, and he had to dig his lance into the ground to catch himself from falling to the floor.

Curse his body.

As he rearranged his footwork and decided to try focusing on only that, he faintly heard the sounds of Felix's sword  _ thwacking _ against a dummy slowing down. 

As he lifted his lance, ready to try again, Felix spoke. "You're being oddly quiet—"

And then he stopped, and Sylvain glanced over at Felix. Felix was staring at him with a confused expression. It passed quickly though, and Felix's face quickly contorted into his usual passively angry expression.

"Ah, you. I didn't expect to see you training here." Felix said, leaning against the training dummy he had just been slashing to pieces. He narrowed his eyes, squinting at Sylvain. "Why aren't you in class? It's not true that you moved into the Golden Deer class, right?"

Sylvain doesn’t— _ can’t _ — respond. He looked away from Felix's face, trying to stay calm.

"I joined the Golden Deer on the first day. For... the cute girls, you know."

He dropped the training lance he was holding, listening to it clatter against the ground, and walked out of the training grounds, leaving behind a surprisingly silent Felix.

* * *

It was a free day, and Sylvain honestly, truly,  _ tried _ to flirt with girls. He really did! But none of his words had come out right, and nothing he said really sounded like flirting. 

Yet the noble girls were still interested in him.

He needed a break from the whole 'Attempting to flirt with girls like you're your past self' thing. So there he was, in the dining hall, getting some food for lunch. He turned around, tray of food in hand, and glanced around the dining hall, searching for people he knew.

Oh—Dorothea was here! She was leaning over her food and holding Bernadetta's hand. From a distance, Sylvain couldn't see the look on Bernadetta's face, but he thought about what they discussed in the character meeting, and decided against joining them. 

His eyes moved over to Raphael instead, who was closer, eating his food with joy. Sylvain couldn't help the smile on his face as he slid into the seat next to Raphael, placing a hand on his arm. "Hey, buddy!"

Raphael swallowed his food, grinning at him. "Oh, hey, Sylvain! Wasn't expecting you here! Was expecting you to be going out with girls. Not that I care about that." He looked at Sylvain’s plate and nodded, returning to his own food before he realized something was up. He turned back to Sylvain. “Wait, hold up. That isn’t enough food!”

Oh. Right. Raphael ate a lot, didn't he?

Sylvain chuckled, pulling his plate away from Raphael's, scooting away slightly to keep up appearances. "It's enough for me, buddy. Can't you appreciate a classmate eating with you? C'mon, lemme eat with you."

"Sure, sure." Raphael shrugged, and returned to chowing down his food. Sylvain smiled, then started to eat.

They ate in silence, which was fine. It was easier to look around the dining hall and pretend to eye up all the girls.

"Hello, Sylvain."

Sylvain smacked his fork into his face, and let out a yelp. Raphael snapped to attention, and made a movement to reach out his hand, only to stop. Sylvain dropped the fork and turned to Dimitri, the person who surprised him, who looked guilty.

Guilty?

"Hey, your Highness," he said, lifting his hand to touch the area where he had smashed a fork into his face. It didn't seem to have pierced his skin, which was good. "Wasn't expecting to have you walk up to me."

"Clearly! Sorry about that." Dimitri was holding a plate in his hands, and there was a small crack in the side of it. Did he accidentally surprise Dimitri back? "I saw you here, and I thought I heard that you were out flirting with women, so I was just... surprised, that's all."

"No need to just stand there, your Highness. You can sit down." Sylvain pat the seat next to him. Raphael made a noise through his food that Sylvain thought sounded affirming.

Dimitri shook his head. "No, I shouldn't. You're bonding with your new classmate, right? I shouldn't intrude on that." The prince adjusted his feet. "I just, ah... had to ask a question."

"Okay...?" Sylvain leaned back in his seat, listening.

"...Why did you—"

Sylvain careened backwards and crashed into the ground, smacking his head into the floor. Scrambling to his feet, he mumbled an excuse while running out of the dining hall, nursing the back of his head with his hand.

Faintly, he heard Dimitri calling after him. He didn't stop.

He really hoped Dimitri didn't see his face.


	6. Mock Preparations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sothis took this opportunity to manifest herself in front of Byleth's eyes, a wide grin on her face.
> 
> "May our victory prove a good omen!" Sothis cheered, fist pumped to the sky, and Byleth nodded to her as they walked through the door.  
\---  
The Mock Battle was upon them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you know the drill. edited by solsticeScriptures.

Byleth walked into Hanneman's office, brushing a hand through their hair. They had only started grading a few of the papers they had handed their class, and the seminars today didn’t involve either them or Hanneman, so there they were.

Hanneman turned at the sound of their footsteps, and the smile on his face grew. "Ah—how nice of you to join me! You're here for my crest analysis, right? You do know about crests, yes?"

"Yes." Byleth did not want to hear his explanation again. They could feel Sothis’ approval, the mental image of her nodding crossing their mind.

"Ah, good, good." Hanneman moved to his desk. It was then that Byleth noticed the sleeping figure in the chair behind his desk, slumped over a pile of scattered papers. Byleth’s face twisted in confusion at the sight of Linhardt, snoozing away.  _ He wasn’t here before. _

Hanneman picked up a stack of papers, and as he was looking for his quill, he noticed Byleth's confused expression. "Oh, yes. Linhardt came to my office the other day, telling me about his interest in crest research, and he has been going through a lot of my notes. I would recruit him as an assistant, but..." 

A snore sounded, and Hanneman's face fell. "He is, ah... unreliable."

_ You can work with him,  _ Byleth thought, wanting to scream.  _ He has an unusual focus on things that grab his attention, you just need to point him in certain directions! You have him in your grasp! _

Instead, Byleth said, "Are we going to do the crest analysis?"

Hanneman nodded. "Yes, of course. Put your arm over the machine." He sat down in a spare chair and leaned forward, occasionally glancing down at his notes.

Byleth raised their arm over the machine, watching as a strange light turned on. As the light passed over Byleth’s arm, an image flickered into the air and hovered over their arm, causing Hanneman to gasp loudly.

"Oh... a crest I haven't identified before?" Hanneman’s eyes widened as his writing increased in speed. "Oh, the way that line bends to intersect with the other lines... oh, it is most unusual...!"

It was an incomplete Crest of Flames.

" _ He still has to upgrade his machine, _ " Sothis observed. Byleth had withdrawn their arm when Linhardt opened his eyes.

Linhardt's eyes passed over the crest in the air and he paused, staring as the incomplete image started to fade away. Linhardt looked over to Hanneman and said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "You should upgrade the machine."

Byleth froze, their mind going blank.

Hanneman frowned, glancing between Linhardt and the machine. A perplexed expression had crossed his face. "What? But it's as up to date as I can make it, how could you possibly think-"

"Put your hand over the machine again, Professor Byleth." Linhardt instructed, lifting up one arm and resting his head on one hand. "Please.”

Byleth felt their eyebrows crease with an emotion they couldn’t quite place. Was it worry? Or was it confusion? Regardless, they followed suit, raising their hand over the machine once more. The incomplete crest popped up again, and Linhardt pointed at the symbol.

"Near the edges of that crest," Linhardt pointed out, stifling a yawn. "It sort of looks like there's a bit of flickering, like your machine wants to show something more, but isn't capable of doing so." 

Linhardt tilted his head, eyes fixated on the incomplete image of the crest. "Curious, isn't it? A powerful crest..." 

Byleth withdrew their hand again, staring at Linhardt. There was something... off about the way he said that.

"Now that you mention it, you could be right." Hanneman wrote Linhardt’s suggestion down, a smile crossing his face. "A powerful crest... more powerful than my machine? Wonderful! What crest do you think it could be, Linhardt?"

"Oh, I don't know. You should let Professor Byleth leave though, before they get bored."

"Ah, of course!" Hanneman looked up at Byleth, bowing his head. "I have a great many things to discuss with Linhardt."

Byleth nodded, backing out of the room. Closing it behind them, they stood in the hallway, still trying to process what just happened.

Sothis appeared in front of them, a frown crossing her features. "That  _ definitely _ did not happen the first time. And all because Linhardt happened to be in the room when we came this time, rather than just Hanneman!”

"I don't like this." Byleth crossed their arms, frowning. "What if this keeps building up, until I don't know what's going on anymore?"

"We have to keep going and see this through. I'm sure we can deal with whatever happens," Sothis sighed, kicking her feet in the air. "You're better than this. You dealt with a  _ war _ —as long as our general timeline remains the same, I'm sure you can deal with minor personal differences."

Byleth breathed in. Right. They could do this. They nodded, smiling at Sothis.

"I believe in you, Byleth. You're a warrior!" Sothis floated forward, cupping Byleth's face in her hands. "You're an incredible teacher, too! You can get your fawns back to where they were, I'm sure of it."

"Not before the mock battle," Byleth sighed, and Sothis giggled, floating away from them.

"I suppose you have a point there. Just in general, then."

* * *

Byleth stood in front of their class, watching as their students trickled in. 

Raphael walked in alongside Ignatz, the former ruffling the hair of the latter, who seemed resigned to his fate. Claude walked in with Sylvain, the duo discussing something that Byleth couldn't hear as they went to sit down in their seats.

Soon after, Hilda had entered, pulling a resigned-looking Marianne along with her, their hands intertwined tightly. Despite the sad frown on her face and her downcast eyes, Byleth could have sworn that Marianne’s eyebags were lighter than the first week they had taught the class. 

Hilda broke away from Marianne, rising on her tiptoes to whisper something into Marianne’s ear. Marianne flushed as Hilda pulled away. Hilda giggled as she watched Marianne rush over to her seat. As soon as Marianne had sat down, burying her face in her hands, Hilda turned, skipping over to her own chair on the other end of the classroom.

Hilda’s hair was still tied up in that familiar high ponytail. She had been wearing the same hairstyle ever since Byleth had stumbled into the Golden Deer classroom that night.

_ “Curious,”  _ Sothis hummed.  _ “I wonder if Marianne likes that hairstyle. Perhaps that is why Hilda keeps wearing it?” _

_ That… is an incredibly gay move of Hilda,  _ Byleth thought, narrowing their eyes at the pink-haired girl.

Tearing their gaze away from Hilda, Byleth did a headcount. While they were focused on Hilda and Marianne, more students had trickled in, and the courtyard had been emptied.

Okay. They had all their students.

"Today is the day of the mock battle," Byleth announced, slamming a hand on their desk to get everyone’s attention. "Before we do that, I want to record my teaching goals for you on the board." Byleth picked up the chalk on their desk, pointing it in the air. "What are your goals?"

"I'll take Bows and Flying," Claude said, and Byleth couldn’t help staring. Claude shrugged in his seat. "Where I come from, wyverns are pretty much a popular animal. If I can learn to ride one, I should be set."

Shrugging it off as a coincidence—a coincidence that Claude would get started on wyvern riding so soon— Byleth turned to the board and wrote down Claude's goals. 

They turned back to the class. "Tell me your goals."

At least things were predictable from there on. Ignatz wanted to try bow and sword training. Raphael wanted to punch things with a side of axe studies. Hilda decided to stick with axes. Marianne chose to go with faith magic. Lysithea… 

"Can I go with Reason, Faith, and Authority?"

Byleth stared. Again.

"...Only two at a time."

Lysithea eventually decided to go with Reason and Faith magic. Sylvain wanted Lance and Riding. Lorenz asked to study Reason—

_ Wait, what? _

Byleth paused as they were writing on the board, turning around to look at Lorenz. "Reason magic?"

Lorenz nodded. "Yes. I studied magic once, you know. I might as well learn some more,” he explained, in his usual, haughty tone of voice. “Ah, but I will not have much magic during the mock battle, since it has been a while."

Byleth eventually nodded at Lorenz, deciding not to question him any further, lest they look suspicious. Turning back to the board, they wrote Reason next to Lorenz’s goals. 

They turned back to the class, their eyes drifting over to the last student who hadn't chosen their goals yet—Leonie.  _ I believe she should be choosing bows and riding— _

"Could I get some focus on Flying and Bows?"

Judging by the looks of surprise from the other students,  _ clearly  _ they weren't expecting that either. Leonie’s request had nearly cracked Byleth’s composure, but they forced down their feelings, struggling to maintain their stoic facade. "Of course." 

Byleth turned back to the board. While they were writing down Leonie’s goals, they swore they could hear Claude and Leonie whispering to each other furiously in hushed voices. 

Byleth turned back to face the class, and Leonie and Claude both shot back to their proper sitting positions.  _ Too  _ proper. Byleth could heard Sothis suppress her giggles. 

They gave the two what they  _ hoped  _ was a curious look and nothing else, then put their chalk down. 

"Alright, deers. We are going to head to the mock battle site." Byleth walked out from behind the desk, heading towards the door. "Remember—stay close."

They heard movement from behind them as they pushed open the classroom door. They smiled. Sothis took this opportunity to manifest herself in front of Byleth's eyes, a wide grin on her face.

"May our victory prove a good omen!" Sothis cheered, fist pumped to the sky, and Byleth nodded to her as they walked through the door.

* * *

"So, guys," Claude started, a sly smile plastered across his face, "While Byleth isn't looking, I say we figure out whether we can poison the enemy team."

Byleth turned to Claude, resisting the urge to sigh.  _ Really, Claude? _ "Excuse me."

Hilda burst into laughter, gripping Leonie's shoulder tightly. Leonie was obviously trying to fight the smile that was rapidly spreading across her face. Lorenz chuckled, before looking away and coughing loudly into his fist.

Claude turned to the professor, rolling his eyes. "Come on, Teach. I know you can't condone it, but... think about it. If the students from the opposing classes raced to the infirmary, it would much easier to beat them, wouldn't you say? It would just be a little stomach bug, for all they know..."

"No." Byleth sighed, crossing their arms.

Claude frowned, but in that obviously joking way of his—his lips quirked up soon after he frowned. "Aw, but what if it helps us out? We don't know the power of the opposing groups—"

"And Sylvain here—" Lysithea poked Sylvain's side, causing the taller student to yelp and jump away, "—has moved instantly from the Blue Lions to our class, so who knows what kind of force Ingrid might pit against us."

"Ugh." Lorenz rubbed his head, shaking his head. "Honestly, Sylvain. Could you not have waited until  _ after  _ the mock battle? We have no need of your childish endeavors, and even less of your... flirtatious manners."

Sylvain opened his mouth to respond—to protest, even—but he looked Byleth's way and stopped. Instead, he turned his attention elsewhere, and pointed out, "Hey, isn't that the other two professors?"

Byleth turned their attention to the side Sylvain was pointing at, watching as the blobby shapes in the distance sharpened into the professors of the opposing classes, followed by their students.

Their eyes passed over Ashe, who was glancing over at them. Ashe ran a hand through his hair, which had been combed down slightly. He waved a tiny bit, a subtle gesture that went unnoticed by his classmates. Byleth lifted their hand to wave back, then looked towards the Black Eagles.

They had to suppress a shudder when they saw Edelgard, but when their eyes passed over the other students, they paused.

Dorothea and Bernadetta were standing next to each other, and Dorothea was running her fingers through Bernadetta's hair. Bernadetta had combed her hair, with it now cut in the style of a cute bob. She was fidgeting, and Byleth was certain that she wanted to leave, but couldn't because of the mock battle.

They decided that they would try to talk to her during their free time.

Byleth saw Linhardt yawning behind them, causing Bernadetta to let out a yelp and cling tightly to Dorothea. Caspar laughed, slapping a hand on Linhardt's arm and mouthing something Byleth couldn't hear.

Hanneman coughed, and Byleth snapped back to attention.

"We went over our starting positions, correct?" Hanneman asked, and the other two professors nodded. "We may now retreat to those positions, and discuss strategy with our students. When the overlooker blows the horn, we will begin."

Manuela winked. "Well, time for the Black Eagles to wipe you off your feet." She looked over to her students and snapped her fingers, causing everyone to straighten up. She walked off, her students trailing after her.

Hanneman turned back to his students, clapped his hands once, and started walking. Ashe's gaze lingered on Byleth's face for a while longer, before he turned to catch up with Dedue.

Byleth turned back to their deers, and walked up to them. "Okay, here's our plan..."


	7. Watch Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> But if that was the case, then why was she wearing it here, before war even broke out?
> 
> And then the realisation hit her.
> 
> _They remember! Oh, Sothis, they remember!_  
\---  
Flayn watches the battle from where Jeralt is observing. She realizes something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> edited as always by solsticeScriptures!

Flayn stood on the platform next to Jeralt, fiddling with the frills at the edge of her uniform. Her gaze was focused on the training field before her, watching as the Golden Deer huddled together, likely discussing a plan. 

Her eyes drifted over to the Black Eagles, who were getting into positions that seemed to have been set by Manuela, catching sight of Edelgard standing next to Dorothea.

Flayn clenched her fists, licking her lips. Edelgard... she remembered her well. Edelgard, the one who hired the Death Knight. Edelgard, who let the Remire Village Calamity happen. Edelgard, the student who seemed so kind, but then turned around and declared a war on Flayn’s home.

Flayn's eyes wandered back over to the Golden Deer.

Edelgard, the one who threatened her new family.

Flayn jolted out of her thoughts when Jeralt blew the horn in his hands, and she quickly noticed that the Golden Deer had gotten into their positions. Had she gotten lost in her thoughts again? She sat down, letting her eyes roam over the battlefield.

The  _ battlefield.  _ As if it were some blood-fueled war, with enemies raging and taking lives in the hopes of achieving the future they wished to see forged. A war, on a much larger field, flashed through her mind. She saw arrows flying through the air, axes swinging—

There was the sound of a training weapon smacking against armor, and Flayn instinctively readied a spell, only to watch it fizzle out on her fingertips as she realised there was no true danger in the mock battle. She glanced up at Jeralt, who was watching the battle with a faint smile on his face.

"Sir?" she asked, causing Jeralt to look over at her. Flayn felt her heart jump.  _ Quick, focus on the question, Flayn! _ "Did you truly expect for your child to choose the Golden Deer? I have heard rumours of their leader causing nothing but trouble, especially for my older brother…"

"I was surprised, but..." Jeralt pointed at the field, and Flayn followed his finger.

Sylvain and Claude were next to each other, fighting side by side. Claude nocked an arrow, and released it, letting it fly. Ashe, their opponent, dodged the arrow and tried to load an arrow in a quick motion that Flayn found…  _ familiar. _

However, Ashe fumbled while trying to nock it, causing the arrow to clatter onto the ground.

Sylvain took advantage of this and swung forward, letting the lance strike Ashe's chest. Ashe stumbled backwards, rubbing his chest for a brief moment, before continuing. He loaded up another arrow and aimed at Sylvain this time, jumping back as the arrow grazed Sylvain's ear. While Ashe was focusing on Sylvain though, Claude had loaded up another arrow. When Ashe was done firing and Sylvain ran up to him, Claude fired. 

Ashe was hit by Sylvain's lance and by Claude's arrow, causing him to stumble to the ground.

Sylvain reached out a hand for Ashe to take, and the boy gladly took it. Flayn could see Ashe leaning closer to Sylvain to say something, but she couldn't read lips from her position next to Jeralt. Sylvain laughed, then patted Ashe's shoulder and pushed him in the direction of the people who were already defeated. The only other person there already was Hubert.

_ Are they taking on two houses at once? _

Flayn’s eyes were drawn to magical strikes elsewhere, and her eyes widened. Closer to where she stood, Lysithea was throwing up black magic spells into the sky, before sending them flying towards Dorothea, who summoned a few balls of fire magic herself. With a sweeping gesture, she sent the balls of fire careening into Lysithea’s spells, blasting the black magic out of the sky, and causing a pretty-looking mix of red and purple to fall to the ground.

Next to Lysithea was Marianne, who was casting what appeared to be a heal spell, which faded the moment the two magical spells fell apart. Next to Dorothea was Linhardt, who was seated on the ground, shoulders slumped...  _ Is he sleeping?  _

Flayn moved her gaze away from the magic battle, and glanced over at the front force, which comprised of Byleth, who was being accompanied by Raphael, Ignatz, Leonie, Lorenz, and Hilda. Hilda was next to Byleth, and—was she wearing her hair in a high ponytail?

Flayn remembered that hairstyle very,  _ very _ well. Hilda had told Flayn before that she wore her hair like that because she felt free to experiment with different styles during the war... But if that was the case, then why was she wearing it here, before war even broke out?

And then the realisation hit her.

_ They remember! Oh, Sothis, they remember! _

Flayn's smile was wide. She was so  _ sure  _ of it—from the way Sylvain was so friendly with Ashe, and the way the two mages were fighting, and  _ also  _ the way Hilda was carrying her hair... 

It had to be so. They  _ had  _ to remember. Besides, the worst she could get if she was truly wrong was a strange look, and being told that it was just a bad dream.

_ Seteth looked down at her, a strange look on his face. "Rhea? No, she's perfectly fine. It was a bad dream, Flayn. Go back to bed."  _

Flayn sucked in a breath. Byleth was facing off against Edelgard, with Hilda charging off to the side to take on Caspar. Lorenz and Leonie were being faced with an attack from Ferdinand, settling into positions that were used in training ground practices...

Jeralt laughed, snapping her out of her observations. "They've done a great job of at least getting them to take this battle seriously. The way they move—they're obviously trying to take it easy, but sometimes, you just got to impress someone, and it seems like they want to."

Flayn watched as Byleth knocked Edelgard to the ground and pointed the training sword down at her. After a while, Edelgard pushed the sword aside, getting up and walking towards the area where the other defeated students were.

Leonie stumbled over her feet in a familiar motion that reminded Flayn of whenever Leonie would dismount from her horse, and Lorenz quickly hopped in front of her, blocking an attack from Ferdinand, and allowing Leonie to regain her footing. Leonie stepped to the side and swung her lance, hitting Ferdinand with the blunt end of it and causing him to fall backwards, landing on his butt. Lorenz held out his hand, and Ferdinand took it.

Dimitri shot out, racing towards Byleth, and the professor turned around, startled. Raphael darted forward, body lowered toward the ground, then upward as the gauntlets smashed into Dimitri's side. Dimitri stumbled, before moving to try and swipe his lance into Raphael's exposed side. 

Suddenly, an arrow shot out and hit Dimitri’s hand, causing him to drop his lance with a yelp. Ignatz instantly raced forward, rubbing his hands over Dimitri's own. Raphael walked over to them, hovering his hands close to Dimitri's own, but stopping. 

Flayn looked back at Jeralt, eyebrows furrowing. "... What if I wished to join the class?"

Jeralt's eyes were still scanning the battlefield, the smile still on his face. "Well... you could probably just ask Byleth. They may seem unfeeling on the surface, but trust me. They would love to listen to your problems. Perhaps they’ll even try to convince your brother."

A sudden explosion caused Flayn’s head to whip around, eyes darting over to Lysithea and Dorothea. The two girls were both lying flat on the grass, knocked out from whatever had just happened. Marianne was crouching by Lysithea, holding a glowing palm over her forehead. Bernadetta was kneeling by Dorothea, mouth moving too fast for Flayn to decipher. Meanwhile, Linhardt wandered over to Dorothea and waved a lazy hand over her forehead, hand glowing with white magic.

The three awake students looked at each other, nodded simultaneously, and picked up their knocked out mages, carrying them towards the corner with the rest of the defeated students

Jeralt laughed, holding up a hand to his face.

Flayn looked up at him, confused.

"Ah.... kid, that would happen all the time with our mages. Wanted to make sure their power was greater than the other person's, friendly competition, you know... and then end up knocking themselves out."

* * *

"The Golden Deer house are the winners!" Jeralt announced through the horn.

Flayn smiled as she watched the remaining deer on the battlefield—Byleth, Claude, Ignatz, and Hilda—got together and high-fived. She watched as Claude had to lift up Byleth's hand in order to high-five it.

Flayn turned her eyes to the sky, watching the orange slip into pink, and knew that everyone had to be tired. It was early morning when the mock battle started, after all. Constantly fighting for hours was sure to be tiring.

She watched as the groups in the defeated corner walked out. Sylvain was running away from a yelling Ingrid. Dorothea and Lysithea were leaning on each other. Marianne was walking near the front of the group and holding a hand over her mouth as Raphael and Caspar yelled at each other about something.

The three houses split up to meet with their teachers, and Flayn watched intently as the golden deer reunited. Sylvain high-fived Claude. Hilda grabbed Marianne's hand. Raphael picked up Ignatz.

Leonie tried to pick up Raphael but visibly struggled to do so and stopped. Instead, Leonie settled for picking up Lorenz, who started to yell, waving his arms around. Claude and Sylvain doubled over, holding onto each other for support, and Hilda leaned on Marianne’s arm, laughing as well.

Flayn noticed Marianne lift up a hand and slap it over her own mouth, clearly trying not to laugh.

Byleth clapped their hands and the group paused, turning to their professor. Leonie put Lorenz down carefully. Byleth said something, pointed to the sky, then started to walk away. After a while, the deer followed.

Flayn decided now would be a good time to follow. She slipped off the platform Jeralt was still watching from, and raced towards where the Golden Deer were. She tried not to be  _ too _ excited, but judging by the way Jeralt called after her, she was being too fast.

_ Ah well. _ She still leaped down the hill, shoes crashing into the muddy grass beneath her, and she ran towards the group in the distance. Flayn watched as they paused, then watched as Byleth walked away, no longer being followed by their class.

_ Perfect.  _

She skidded to a halt next to them and panted, “You all remember as well, do you not?”

Claude's look of panic, combined with the way the entire group froze up, confirmed it. The leader of the Golden Deer turned towards Flayn, his eyes scanning her. "...Yes, but please don't say that in public anymore. Don't want any suspicion, do we?"

"That would be..." Flayn breathed in, then out. Her body wasn't used to running a lot right now... "...correct. Now, what are you all up to? Shouldn’t you all be returning to bed by now?"

Claude shook his head. "No. We've got some planning to do. Luckily—" He walked forward and put a hand on Flayn's shoulder, "—we've got you with us, so any plans regarding your kidnapping will go by your ears first."

"Splendid!" Flayn beamed. "So... where are we going to start planning? Not out here, I assume, because you said—"

"The Golden Deer classroom." Hilda rolled a strand of hair around her finger. "It’s our best bet. nobody else is there, and while it is more of a walk..."

"It's worth it for our planning," Marianne said, nodding. "Let's get going!"

* * *

As soon as the last of their group came through the door, Claude shut it and locked it tightly. He nodded at Ashe, who waved back at him as he walked to a seat and sat down. Sylvain stood at the front of the classroom, staring at the blackboard. He pulled out a book as Claude approached, and the two of them leaned closer together, eyes scanning the pages.

Claude glanced up at the board, then to the class. "Do all of you have plans for your character development?"

Marianne, seated on Flayn's right, nodded. "During the Horsebow Moon, I plan to just act like myself. No stutters—well, only my... usual ones." She tapped her fingers on the table. "But once the Horsebow Moon rolls around, I won't be staying in my room pretending to beg for death, or hanging around the chapel, pretending to, um, beg for death..." She winced, and Flayn couldn't help staring at her.

"Marianne?" Flayn reached out a hand, then paused. "...My apologies. I’m not quite sure what to say."

"I-It's fine. I'm better now." Marianne waved her hand in the air. "Enough about me. How about everyone else?"

Dorothea shrugged. "I dunno. I mean, I just have to act happier, then get sad about... um. Something." She turned towards the two at the front of the room. "Are we going to prevent the Miklan Incident?"

Sylvain frowned. "Well, we'll try. Why do you ask?"

Dorothea took off her hat, messing with the brim. "If you don’t prevent it, I’ll get sad about killing during that incident. But if you do… then I’ll likely become sad about killing during the Holy Mausoleum mission."

Sylvain chuckled to himself, shaking his head. "Getting sad. That's a simple way of putting it."

Flayn listened as the other students chimed in with their own progresses. 

Bernadetta talked about slowly leaving her comfort zone and going outside more during the Horsebow Moon, fidgeting in her seat as she stuttered about not wanting to be a recluse anymore. Lorenz spoke of toning down his arrogance by the time the Blue Sea Moon rolled around. Leonie also talked about planning to chill out on her Jeralt obsession around the same time Lorenz would calm down, promising to tone her admiration and praises down.

Ignatz said something about “going along with Lorenz and Leonie”, though Flayn wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that. Perhaps he was referring to his tendency to criticise himself too much, Flayn guessed, and he planned to grow more confident in his character around the same time Lorenz and Leonie would calm down.

Ashe had glanced over at Dorothea before talking about getting sad, much like she did, about… kindred spirits, not that Flayn was too sure what that meant. And Linhardt… 

Claude rubbed his forehead. "As long as he doesn't do something like revealing that he knows about Teach's crest, he should be fine. Raphael, wake him up."

Raphael shook Linhardt, and the boy groaned, blinking as he woke up. "Wh... oh, are we planning?"

"About to, and you could very well add something that we overlooked." Claude picked up the chalk, then turned to the board, which had been flipped around to show the notes that they had likely written on a previous meeting."Sylvain, please erase the board."

"On it!" Sylvain saluted, tossing his book onto Byleth's desk. He grabbed the eraser and wiped it across the entire board, clearing the notes they had before.

After the board was cleared, Claude glanced down at the book sitting on the desk, picking it up and reading through it again. "Okay so. Linhardt, when do you think you'll come to our class?"

"Sometime next week," Linhardt said, sighing. "I've set myself up so it makes sense."

"Gotcha." Claude walked over to the board and drew a line down the center, stretching from the top to the bottom. There was a bit of space at the top that Claude couldn't reach, left woefully blank. Claude then wrote a line near the top, wrote  _ Mock Battle _ , and then put a checkmark next to it. He wrote right below it,  _ Linhardt Joins _ , and then stepped away, turning back to the class.

"The left side—" Claude pointed to the side he had written his notes on, "—is the side where all of our actions will be. On the right side..." He turned back to the board, and Flayn watched as he wrote out  _ Bandit Leader gets Unhired by Edelgard and gets Real Angry. _

"Um." Leonie’s face scrunched up. "Wait a moment."

"Yeah, I was nearby when he was dying last time. Mentioned something about never listening to 'that idiot'. And considering what he said the first time he interacted with me—" 

Claude shrugged nonchalantly. "Had a feeling he was hired to kill me and Dimitri."

" _ WHAT?! _ " Sylvain's eyes widened. "Dude, you didn't tell me—"

"Excuse me?!" Leonie shouted, jumping up from her seat.

"How are you so casual about this?" Hilda sighed, then seemed to think better of what she said. "Oh, wait. You told me once that your dad used to tie you to a horse and drag you around."

The class went silent. Flayn stared wide-eyed at Claude. 

He had experienced  _ pain  _ from his  _ father _ ?

"...It really wasn't that bad." Claude eventually said, but his voice was slightly subdued. "No need to worry. Anyway, back to the plans."

From there on, Flayn got slightly confused. 

She hadn’t been involved in the class before, so the events that Claude was referring to casually, alongside the various details plotted down on each side of the board, were all unfamiliar to her. As the class around her chattered on about things she didn’t understand, she began to read through the board. Flayn had spotted a few mentions of the Death Knight scribbled down on it, and a lot of crammed notes to the right side.

After reading through the board, Claude met eyes with her, and Flayn blinked back into focus. "Ah, right. And then we have Flayn to contend with." He leaned back, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "We were planning on secretly tailing you and trying to convince you to come with us on the mission, but because you remember, now we don't have to do that."

"I was kidnapped the day before you returned from the mission at the tower, if I recall correctly." Flayn provided. Claude hummed, looking over at Sylvain.

"That's a problem, isn't it?" Claude walked up to the board, writing beside  _ Miklan Fight _ — _ Prevent Flayn's Kidnapping _ . "Hm. Okay. Since we have Flayn here, and everybody’s brains are probably fried by all our theorizing... How about we talk a bit about possible ways to stop this from happening?"

Ignatz' hand shot up. "Oh, Claude! What if we have our group split up? A part of us sticks with Flayn, another part with Byleth?"

"Sounds good, but..."

* * *

Flayn fidgeted in her seat, holding her hands in her lap. Hilda ran her hands through her green hair, carefully uncurling Flayn's curls and letting the natural length of it tumble past her shoulders. It had been so long since she changed her style. Even in the future, she didn't change it.

As if sensing her nervousness, Hilda spoke up. "Don't worry, girl! If you want to become a part of our class, you  _ should  _ be a part of our social group! Then your dad—"

"My brother," Flayn corrected, frowning. Regardless of how Claude had figured that secret out, it was bothersome to have more people than just herself, her father, and Rhea know.

"Right, right. Then your  _ brother  _ can see that you really belong with us, and allow you to join early." Hilda lifted up a portion of Flayn's hair, humming to herself. "Either that or we go with Plan B. Or E."

"Right." Flayn found herself smiling, swaying a bit.

Hilda grunted, "Hey, don't move too much! I'm doing your hair!"

"R-Right! Sorry!"

"You're good, just don’t move until I do your hair..." Hilda paused, and Flayn heard a faint gasp from behind her. "Ohhh, I've got a good idea! I might not be able to execute it right away, but it would be the most adorable thing!"

Flayn resisted the urge to tilt her head. "Oh? What may the idea be?"

"Well—"

She heard something thud against the ground, and Flayn felt Hilda move slightly. "Oh, hey, Professor! Flayn wanted to join us for today—could you please,  _ please _ let her join?"

_ Professor?  _ Flayn resisted the urge to move, curling her hands around her seat.

"Her brother's been putting some pressure on her, and we might as well try to clear that away, you know?" Hilda made a motion with one hand, then combed it through Flayn's hair again. "So, she's here now. That alright?"

There was silence. 

And then Byleth said, "I suppose that is fine. Just... let her know it is fine to get out of the room if we get too chaotic."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this was late! both me and the editor were busy all week and just got done editing this today... and also i had work so i could only post it just now. sorry!
> 
> that schedule change may happen real soon.


	8. Authority Training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Linhardt sat in the back, confused. "Hold on... Professor, what is this?"
> 
> The classroom looked at Byleth.
> 
> Byleth responded, "Authority training."
> 
> Linhardt glanced up at the three at the front of the classroom. Then he looked at the book. Then he looked back at Byleth. "...Authority. For... reading a book."  
\--  
Fun classroom activity!

Byleth collapsed into their bed, pressing a hand against their forehead. 

The mock battle was exhausting, but also a relief. The battle went as planned… Mostly. 

…Except for the weird explosion thing that happened with Lysithea. Byleth didn't know what that was about.

Sothis popped into being, floating next to Byleth's bed. Her feet kicked in the air as she spoke. "Hm. Perhaps that was what they were planning at the Training Grounds. Doesn't seem to have gone well for them, though."

"Right," Byleth scoffed. That particular battle deprived them of a mage against Dedue. Lysithea was supposed to defeat him with her magic... But they dealt with it fine. It wore them out, but it was fine.

The two sat in silence for a bit. Sothis floated to the end of the bed and sat down—or rather, appeared to be sitting down. In actuality, she was hovering ever-so-slightly above the mattress, legs crossed. "So... are you going to sleep now? Despite how weary you say you feel, you do not seem to be tired."

Byleth sighed. "I know. I should sleep." Their eyes wandered around the room, landing on the book on their desk. After a bit of contemplation, Byleth sat up from their bed, and wandered over to the book, picking it up.

When they turned back to Sothis, their other half had her eyes widened. "Don’t tell me you're going to read that."

"It'll do for some light reading. Help lull me to sleep." Most of the religious texts they had read were pretty cool, but the writing style made them fall asleep faster.

"Oh, you really don't remember? Right, of course, you still had repressed emotions. Trust me—don't read it. Burn it."

Byleth frowned. What was Sothis so concerned about? They sat down on their bed, and Sothis lifted herself up from it, looking away. Not that it would do her any good, though, since Sothis could see what Byleth could see.

Then Byleth read a paragraph.

"... _ Oh. _ " 

Sothis sighed with aggravation. "You remember now?"

_ "I am telling you that this isn't worth your time to read!" Sothis put her hands in front of the pages. Her see-through hands failed to block the words, but Byleth decided to look up at her anyway. "Now go and dump it somewhere!" _

_ "...Okay." _

Byleth scrunched up their face. "I don’t remember this... mess."

"I know, right? Now throw it away!  _ Burn _ it!"

Byleth thought about Claude. The one with the beard, not the one with the braid. They thought about the books scattered on his bed, one of which he plucked from the pile and showed to Byleth.

_ "This is called bad writing, my friend." Claude said, pointing at the first line. Byleth glanced in that direction, and stared. _

_ "Holy shit." Byleth whispered, blinking. "What... what is he even trying to say?" _

_ "I sure don't know! I've been trying to figure it out for a while now!" _

Sothis blinked. She thought through the brief moment of reminiscing Byleth had gone through. As her feet kicked through the air, she held a hand to her cheek thoughtfully. “So… You wish for it to be made fun of by Claude?”

Byleth rolled their eyes. "Yes. If anyone could make a crap moment good, it's Claude." Byleth smiled, remembering how Claude made a comment on his _ flabber being gasted _ after Rhea dropped the truth on them.

"Ah... of course. But first, you must rest. I recall Seteth waking you and asking you to see him the day after, and you must look at least a little decent."

"Right." Byleth placed the book on their bedside, and closed their eyes. "...Night, Sothis."

"Goodnight, Byleth."

* * *

Byleth thought they were ready for class that day. They held their book in their hands, ready to subject their students to reading it ( _ "Wow, are you sure you're nice, Byleth?”)  _ and had a mission in mind as soon as the library was available for the students. This would be nice.

Byleth walked into the classroom. Sothis was starting to say something, but stopped as Byleth's eyes landed on a new figure in the room.

Flayn sat next to Hilda, chatting to the pink-haired girl about something. Rather than her usual hairstyle, her two big curls had been pulled apart and separated, her hair covering her shoulders and back, her hair’s natural waviness resting around her chest. If it weren’t for the two golden accessories in her hair, Byleth would have assumed that Hilda had simply dragged a random student from the main church into their class.

Their book smacked into the ground and Sothis yelped, only to laugh afterwards.  _ "I... wasn't expecting that." _

Hilda turned her head towards Byleth, and smiled. "Oh, hey, Professor! Flayn wanted to join us for today. Could you  _ please  _ let her join?"

Byleth's eyes glanced down at the book they had just dropped. 

"Her brother's been putting some pressure on her, and we might as well try to clear that away, you know?" Hilda waved a hand in the air, then combed it through Flayn's hair. "So, she's here now. That alright?"

Byleth leaned down and picked up the book, flipping through the pages to make sure nothing got too damaged. After looking through it, trying not to read the words, Byleth nodded. "I suppose that is fine. Just..." Byleth’s thoughts drifted to Claude. "... let her know it is fine to leave the room if we get too chaotic."

"Chaotic? Us?" Hilda blinked her eyes, feigning innocence. Sothis groaned. Hilda leaned back in her seat, pouting slightly. "We would never be too chaotic!"

"You and Caspar," Byleth deadpanned

Hilda's face paled.

She must've forgotten that Byleth saw her running straight towards Caspar, using her axe as momentum, and accidentally kicking him in the side. 

Byleth couldn't help the smile on their face, covering their mouth with one hand as they moved towards the front of the room. They heard a gasp from behind them, and Sothis started giggling in their mind.

_ "Ah, she will regret that in the days to come." _

* * *

Byleth held up the book, and the class stared at them.  _ Keep cool.  _

The professor tapped the book's cover. "This is a book that Seteth gave me. He said I should find a use for it." Their eyes glanced over the cover, and they suppressed a shudder upon remembering the first sentence. "We are going to read this."

"...Uh, Teach." Claude raised his hand. "There's... only one book. How are we all going to read it?"

"Taking turns. A few paragraphs per student."

Ignatz's face scrunched up. "Um.... p—pardon me. A few paragraphs? For a book that big?"

Sothis scoffed. " _ We're doing you a favor, fool! Accept that!" _

Byleth kept their face flat. "I think we can all read that much." Their eyes passed over Raphael, who was tapping his fingers on the desk, and Leonie, whose was squinting at Byleth. "The library won't be available for checking out books until next week."

There were some nods around the classroom. Sylvain leaned back in his seat, groaning slightly. Claude leaned over and smacked him on the shoulder. Byleth realized the two of them had some dark circles under their eyes.  _ Odd. _

"So. Volunteers?"

Claude shot up from his seat, smile on his face. "Well, I'm not complaining. A cool book from the best teacher, right?" He walked up to Byleth's side, and held out his hand. Byleth handed the book to Claude, and went to sit down behind their desk.

The classroom's attention was on Claude now. He opened up the book, opened his mouth, standing on the balls of his feet—

Claude paused. He fell back to standing normally, shoulders falling as he presumably read over the first few lines again.

Sothis manifested herself in front of Byleth's eyes, and floated forward, looking in Claude's direction. As soon as she could see him, she started chuckling. "He's  _ dumbfounded _ ! His face is so funny!"

Byleth looked in Sothis' direction.  _ Wish I could see that. _

Sothis was about to respond but Lorenz's voice spoke up, after a moment of silence, "You can't even read a simple book?"

Claude shook his head. "Oh, this book isn't simple. It's... It's very bad. Here, lemme read. Or try to."

Claude cleared his throat. The class leaned in closer.

" _ On romantic the night of gorgeous women bloom... _ " Claude read, and Sylvain's jaw dropped. Ignatz had frozen at his desk, his pen dropping from his hand. Neither of them spoke, but Byleth spotted Ignatz' mouth moving wordlessly. Claude continued, "...was... naughty the evil... wizard." 

Claude paused, then slowly lowered the book. "The writer misspelled wizard. Naughty isn't capitalized." 

"The writer  _ what _ ?" Ignatz gasped, his voice breaking with his disbelief.

"No way! Lemme see." Hilda pushed herself up from her desk, walking to the front of the classroom. She peeked over Claude's shoulder, and Claude held the book to the side so she could read it. There was a few moments of silence.

Sothis laughed, covering her mouth. "Ohhhh my... Hilda's face is certainly going through many emotions right now."

Byleth watched as Hilda slowly pulled away and she glanced at Claude, which meant that Byleth could see the expression on her face.

Was that... despair?

"How did this even get published?" Hilda asked, eyes glancing down at the book. "I've written better when I was... uh... seven?"

"There are way too many commas," Claude said, shaking his head. He turned his head and looked back at Byleth. "You sure we gotta read this, Teach?"

This was working out fine. "Yes. Continue."

Claude glanced at Hilda, then turned his head back to the book and sighed. Hilda continued standing, leaning slightly to the side to see the book's pages.

"...this naughty wizard... was spreading... hearsay about the goddess." There was a pause as Claude seemingly processed what he had just read.

Hilda pulled the book towards herself. A few moments passed, and Hilda cleared her throat, pushing the book back into Claude's face. She got into a dramatic pose, then said, in the most ridiculous voice she could, " _ The goddess if but a lie meant to make people weak! I will kidnap one of those goddess-worshipping fools and take her to my lair, taking all of the goddess-born power out of her! _ " She laughed evilly... then looked back at the book. "I did remember that last part right, right?"

"You got the line entirely wrong." Claude deadpanned. "There's more scrambled words."

"That doesn't make any sense," Sylvain said, eyes narrowing. "Complaining about the goddess making people weak, then the very next sentence saying they're going to take goddess-born power out of her? _ What? _ "

"Professor, are you sure this is not a joke?" Lorenz asked, before shaking his head. "No, that cannot be so. Seteth would not give this to our professor as... a form of joke. But I still must wonder..."

"I, uh..." Marianne rubbed her hands together, and Hilda's head instantly shot in her direction. Marianne was still staring down at her desk though, so she missed it. "...I wonder... what could cause the writing to be like that."

"When I was learning the language, I'm sure I spoke better than this." Claude commented.

Byleth blinked.  _ Wait, did Claude just reference his past and not being from here? _

Before Byleth could speak, the class moved on as Claude started to read again. " _ And on the romantic night, many girls gather in streets, wasting her lives with—" _

Claude’s voice broke. "That's. That's definitely not..." Claude turned back to Byleth, and Byleth quickly shut down their smile. "Teach, are you sure Seteth gave you this?"

"Handed to me personally." Byleth said, holding up a hand to cover their mouth as Claude continued to stare. The classroom burst into giggles and whispers.

Claude eventually turned back to the class, staring down at the book in his hands. Claude started to read again. The classroom fell quiet, but giggles still rounded the class whenever Claude stumbled on a word throughout his reading.

Hilda kept interrupting whenever the wizard would speak, the silly voice she used beforehand slowly shifting into what could be considered as a serious, dramatic performance as the story went on. Claude let her speak the wizard's lines, and Sothis stopped talking, floating in the air wordlessly.

Byleth found themselves struggling not to smile. The class slowly moved to the front of the room. Even Flayn giggled as Claude's voice got more and more ridiculous, starting to correct the book's grammar as he read.

Then Claude flipped the page, and stopped.

"...Who should play the damsel." He asked after a short pause, pointing at the book. Leonie choked on air. "It's been all wizard and narration so far, but now, all of a sudden, there's a damsel in a tower. Which..." Claude scanned the book. "...Yeah, Wizard's here too. Who wants to be damsel?"

Sylvain raised his hand. "Claude, is there a knight?"

Claude flipped a page, keeping a thumb to hold the place where he had stopped reading. After a bit of a silence, he nodded. "Yeah, there's a knight. Do you want to be the knight?"

"No. I wanna be the damsel."

Lorenz, who had been looking interested a few moments before, decided suddenly to put his hand down.

"...Alright, Sylvain the damsel." Claude's voice was tinged with laughter. "Get over here and read your lines, milady."

"I will, sir Claude." Sylvain stood up from his seat, wandering over to the front of the room and standing next to Claude. Sylvain reeled his head back a bit. "Oh, wow. They, uh... really want her to be a damsel, huh."

"Clearly." Claude sighed. "Considering how the book has gone, though, is that a surprise?"

Marianne sighed with aggravation, and Ignatz glanced over at her. She looked back down at her hands, fidgeting a bit.

Byleth got up from their seat, walking around their desk in order to be able to see Claude's face. As they did so, however, a knock sounded at the door, and everyone in the room froze. 

_ Oh no. _

Was something wrong?

"Door is unlocked," Byleth called out, straightening up a bit.

The person on the other side of the door  _ almost _ made them lose their composure. Almost.

Linhardt.

"I..." He yawned, then shook his head. "I was going... to wait for your class to exit for lunch." His eyes focused, and his mouth curled downwards. "But you didn't come out for... what, thirty minutes? Professor Byleth, aren't you usually much better about this sort of thing?"

"It's lunchtime?" Raphael asked, and Linhardt's eyes snapped in Raphael's direction, widening slightly. "...I didn't feel hungry!"

"You... didn't feel hungry," Linhardt echoed. He shook his head. "Well, I'm glad to be a reminder that you need to eat."

Claude placed the book onto Byleth's desk, and Byleth nodded at their students. 

The deers all stood from their seats and walked towards the door. Sylvain waited near the doorway of the classroom for Claude, and the two of them leaned closer to each other, whispering. After a few whispers, Sylvain pushed Claude's face away from his own, and Claude laughed, walking out of the classroom. Sylvain followed.

Byleth still stood there, and Sothis frowned, "leaning" against a bookshelf. "Linhardt's still here."

So he was. 

Linhardt glanced around, then stepped a bit further into the classroom. After a few moments, he started to speak. "Well, onto what I was going to say when you exited the classroom. Your crest... is something that needs to be studied." His eyes crinkled with a bit of happiness, and his lips turned upwards. "And Professor Hanneman isn't going to study you, cooped up in the lion’s den with Felix. Felix has a major crest, and he's going to be focused on that. So..." 

Linhardt let his fingers dance on the side of his legs. "...May I join your class, Professor Byleth?" 

Byleth stared. Sothis phased through the bookshelf and had to pull herself out of it, form flickering.

Linhardt was one of their later recruits out of the bunch, and now he was joining this early? The professor didn't really know what to say. Byleth could only assume that this was because he happened to be in the room when the crest machine was used for the first time.

"Sure," Byleth eventually said, and Linhardt's smile widened.

That smile. It reminded Byleth of the smile Linhardt held on his face whenever the two of them talked about fishing...

"Great! I will come to your class first thing after lunch." Linhardt nodded, then turned and walked outside.

Byleth stared after him. Sothis floated over to Byleth, also staring.

"...He planned on joining you today," she said, biting her lip. Byleth looked over to her and raised an eyebrow. "Not that it isn't a bad thing, of course, but... We'll have to consider who comes to the canyon with us."

Byleth's eyes widened. "It'll be their first kill. And Linhardt..." A pang of guilt hit their heart, and they couldn't help but stare at the ground.  _ Linhardt doesn't want to kill. He doesn't want to lead, cause people under his command to die... What if I...? _

Sothis was silent for a few moments, her eyes closing. She was peeking into Byleth's thoughts again. 

"...We can owe it to him to at least try." Sothis tilted her head. "That may not work for the war, though."

Byleth grit their teeth.  _ Great.  _

Well. If they wanted Linhardt to survive the war, they would have to make him experience bloodshed at one point or another. Byleth lifted their head and left the classroom, hoping to distract their thoughts with food. 

* * *

The first thing the class did when they returned to the classroom was sit near the front of the room. Claude grabbed the book off of Byleth’s desk, turning to the class and staring at Hilda, who laughed and got up from her seat. Claude looked over to Sylvain next, who chuckled and walked up to Claude, looking over the smaller guy's shoulder and starting to read through the book.

Byleth leaned against the blackboard, a bit closer to the trio at the front and able to see their faces. Byleth glanced behind them and noted to themself that they needed to add in Linhardt's goals.  _ Maybe after class is out for the day... _

Linhardt sat in the back, confused. "Hold on... Professor, what is this?"

The classroom looked at Byleth.

Byleth responded, "Authority training."

Linhardt glanced up at the three at the front of the classroom. Then he looked at the book. Then he looked back at Byleth. "...Authority. For... reading a book."

Byleth glanced at the students. "I think this has been very good for them." Judging by the surprise flickering on the class' faces, they obviously didn't think so. "When Claude started reading, you gave him your attention. A little talk back, yes, but also attention. When he asked for someone to read the damsel, Sylvain volunteered." Byleth gestured at Sylvain, who quickly looked away. "Authority."

Linhardt glanced at the front of the classroom, and his eyes passed over the two men in front. He nodded slowly. "Well... if you'll need me, I'll be over here. Sleeping." 

Linhardt started to lower his head onto his arms.

Ignatz slipped out of his seat and walked to the back to sit beside Linhardt. The artist looked up at Claude and the group, and gave them a thumbs up.

" _ ...Strange." _ Sothis commented. 

Claude glanced over at Byleth, then looked down at the book, reading through the lines. "...Hey, is it alright if I translate this into person speak?"

"Yes, please!" Flayn said, clasping her hands together. "The other writing style was not particularly bad. However, I simply prefer speaking like, um—"

"Like a normal person who knows where to put the word 'the' in a sentence," Leonie finished, rolling her eyes. "How long will that take, anyway?"

"Hmm." Hilda looked over the book again. "If we read a page ahead, we should be able to have general scene lined out! Unless..." Hilda hummed to herself, rubbing a finger over her chin. "Claude reads through it and tells us what the scene is about, and then we can act it out!"

Claude glanced down at the book, then back up at Hilda. "Only if you promise to read the sections of the book where the wizard isn't in it. I am not going to read it for that long, or I'll lose the brain cells I've got."

Hilda rolled her eyes, but she didn't complain.

Sylvain glanced at the book, reading through a few lines. The classroom went silent except for the sound of snoring coming from the back.

Claude looked up, eyes meeting with Ignatz. "Hey. Can you move him without waking him?"

Ignatz stared at Claude. "Uh... what?"

Sylvain took a look at the page Claude was on. His face instantly lit up with a smile. "Wow.  _ Wow _ . Really, Claude?"

Claude shrugged. Hilda looked over at the same page, and a grin took over her face. "That's clever, gotta say that much."

Byleth rose a brow. "What are you going to do with Linhardt?"

Claude turned to Byleth, and casually said, "There's a dead corpse in this book. We're going to use him as the corpse. He sleeps like the dead, anyway."

"Wh— _ Why _ is there a  _ dead corpse _ in a poorly written romance book?" Lorenz asked, voice shrill. 

He got no reply.

* * *

Byleth sat on one of the desks, a small smile on their face. 

Claude squinted at the book placed on a nearby desk, held open by Lysithea laying an arm on it. After a few moments, Claude glanced back to Hilda.

"You evil witch!" He shouted, voice dropping before reciting the next part. "Your heretic butt will not keep me from the faithful woman much longer!" He pointed a finger accusingly at Hilda, who was holding an arm out in front of Sylvain.

"Please save me, sir!" Sylvain’s voice was absolutely  _ shrill.  _ "My faithful needs have not been met, and my womanhood is draining!"

Raphael chuckled, and Leonie was trying to contain her laughter. Lorenz looked away and coughed, unable to hide the smile stretching across his own face. Ignatz sat a bit closer to Marianne, who was looking up at Hilda with a curious look on her face.

Hilda cackled. She spared a quick glance at the ground, then stepped carefully over a snoring Linhardt. "You will never rescue her! She is my—" Hilda leaned over to the book, wincing, " _ property _ , and none of your holy tricks will work on me!" 

Hilda rose her arm in the air, and Raphael made whooshing noises. "Begone, holy creature!" Hilda yelled, throwing her hand forward.

Claude made a noise that sounded like he had been hit, and he stumbled backwards a few steps, yelling, "Nooooo! My princess! I will return, I swear it!"

"...Why is it so loud…?"

Byleth's eyes darted down, staring at the floor where Linhardt was opening his eyes. Hilda was straddled over him, so she quickly stepped back, standing by Sylvain.

Linhardt stared up at the scene around him, and also the ceiling. He looked over at Claude. "...Can you explain why I'm on the floor?"

"The book keeps mentioning a corpse that died when the witch went out to the city and got a non-believer," Lysithea explained instead, glancing down at the book. "You were asleep. Raphael carried you onto the floor."

Lorenz rolled his eyes. "I do wonder why that even exists. How many times is it mentioned? I cannot even stand to look at it."

"Um..." Raphael peeked over Lysithea's shoulder. "Ten times this page."

"Twelve, actually. Author misspelled corpse twice," Lysithea corrected.

Linhardt sat up, rubbing the back of his head. "Impressive that I stayed asleep through all that." He turned to Hilda, squinting a bit. "...Have you considered an acting career?"

"Too much work," Hilda said, waving her hand in the air. "This is just for fun, so I don't mind."

Linhardt looked over to Marianne, who was glancing away. "Right. Too much work."

Byleth looked away from the scene to check the scenery outside the windows. The sky was darkening slightly, which meant...

Byleth stood up and cleared their throat. The class all turned in Byleth's direction.

"Hey, Teach," Claude said, a surprised look on his face, "is that a smile on your face?"

Byleth slapped a hand over their mouth, trying to force down the toothy grin that had been plastered across their face.  _ Damn it. _

Claude laughed, and he looked over at Hilda, who clapped her hands with glee.

"No," Byleth said, removing their hand and forcing their expression back to their usual stoic mask. They registered Sothis chuckling, but ignored her and continued, "Tomorrow, we continue this."

"Gotcha." Sylvain flashed a peace sign at Byleth, starting to walk towards the door. He stopped by Claude's side, and said, "You play a very handsome knight."

"And you, yourself, play a  _ very _ good distressed damsel." Claude rolled his eyes, and the two of them walked towards the door. "C'mon, back to bed with us."

Hilda walked over to Marianne's desk, and pulled her up from her seat. Marianne made a surprised noise, but had a soft smile on her face. Hilda giggled, and she pulled Marianne to her side, linking their arms together. The two of them walked side-by-side out the door.

The students filtered out the classroom, one by one. Flayn pulled Linhardt off of the floor and dragged him out the door, waving goodbye with a free hand. Byleth waved back, watching as they left.

Sothis made herself visible again, and once she did, she burst out laughing. "Ooooh... I'll have to give the fawn this much, they're deadly good actors!"

"Spawned off of a book that was so horrible you begged me to toss it out." Byleth crossed their arms, smile crossing their face again. "...It is great, seeing them have so much fun."

Sothis' face fell. "...Byleth."

Byleth looked away. Sothis made a grumpy noise, and decided to change the topic.

"...Byleth, they're aware of you smiling now. And you denied it." Sothis kicked her feet in the air, crossing her arms. "You know they're going to try to make you keep smiling, right?"

...  _ Shit _ .

Byleth started to walk towards the door, watching the crowds of students disperse. "I suppose I can smile a little more. Blame it on their acting."

"Byleth, that isn't going to cut it for Claude, you know that!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! solsticeScriptures here. unfortunately, updates will change from being twice a week to being once a week, as school will be resuming for me next week, and it’s going to be really hectic. updates will be on saturday, or at the very latest, sunday. 
> 
> Hi! This is Pix. Due to my college life getting a bit more hectic, that is also a reason we're pushing updates to every Saturday. Sorry for the wait for this chapter!


	9. Badfic Theater

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claude looked to Raphael, who had priest garbs draped over him. Leonie wore a cap, and had an apron tied over her normal clothes. Ignatz had a wilting flower on his head, and was currently washing some makeup off of his face with a cloth. Marianne was staring at the pile of accessories still left, almost as if she were deciding if she was going to dress up or not. Lorenz stood in the corner, palm covering on his face.
> 
> "Authority training," Claude replied, and he heard Sylvain choke back a laugh.
> 
> "...Right." Dorothea glanced up at Byleth, then back to Claude. "I'm just here to tell you all that it's lunchtime. Probably should take off your accessories, yes?"  
\---  
A continuation of a bonding moment. Also more book fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you, ShadowDragun, for the idea for the chapter title.

When Claude entered the classroom and saw Hilda slam a pile of accessories down on Byleth’s desk, he knew that she had something devious planned for the day. Especially judging by how she kept flipping through the book, perched on the edge of the desk as Raphael dropped a pile of knight helmets and training swords at her side. Her eyes kept squinting and then widening, before she cackled wildly.

Sylvain walked in after him, halfway through telling Claude about his plan to get Bernadetta to write a better book when he paused at the sight of the classroom.

Claude turned to Sylvain, a grin on his face.

"Clearly Hilda's planning something for us," Claude said, shrugging. "Can’t be clear what she’s got planned”, considering all the junk she's grabbed, but—"

"It's not junk, they're accessories," Hilda argued, digging through the pile and pulling out what looked like a poor imitation of a priest hat. 

Claude squinted at her. "Why do you have that?"

"Oh, you know." Hilda shrugged, placing the priest hat to the side. 

Claude did _ not _know, but he could guess that it was because of her favor-asking ways. He could always ask her later—barge into her room if Marianne wasn't there.

Raphael picked up the priest hat curiously, letting his thick fingers trace the brim. As he looked at the hat, Claude's eyes were drawn to the door, watching Linhardt walk in. Linhardt sat down in the nearest seat and instantly placed a hand against his chin.

Sylvain laughed. "Really, buddy? You're going to sleep already?"

"Sorry. Not that into plays." Linhardt smiled slightly, his tired eyes actually focusing on them for once. "Besides, if you're going to use me as a corpse, I might as well sleep, right?"

Claude shot Hilda a pointed look, watching as she forced the priest hat onto Raphael’s head. He blinked at her, whatever words he was about to say dying on his tongue at the sight. Whoever the priest hat was made for, it was _ definitely _not intended to be used by men with big heads.

Ignatz walked through the doors, and did a double take at the sight of Raphael and Hilda. "H—Hilda? What are you doing?"

"Assigning Raphael his role." Hilda slipped the back of the hat onto Raphael, and she tapped his head. Raphael's face was twisted. It was obvious that getting the hat on wasn't a pleasant experience. Hilda leaned back, smiling at her work. "Fits perfectly!"

"That—" Ignatz's complaint died in his throat, and he shook his head. "I probably shouldn't have gotten caught up in my conversation with Ashe. I could've saved you sooner."

Raphael turned to Ignatz, a wide smile replacing his twisted expression. The big guy slapped a hand against Ignatz's shoulder, his loud laugh filling the classroom. "Oh, Ignatz, don't you worry! Even I couldn't get in the way of—"

"_ Nonononono _ —shut up!" Ignatz slapped a hand over Raphael's mouth—which was a feat, considering their height difference. Claude couldn't stop his laughter, and he could hear Hilda starting to giggle. "I told you that in _ confidence _ , Raphael! _ Stop! _"

Linhardt started laughing as well, and Sylvain was struggling to keep his mouth shut, trying and failing to hold back his own laughter.

Leonie and Lorenz walked into the room, and Lorenz's face scrunched up. "Ugh. What is going on _ now _?"

Claude wiped a tear from his eye and straightened up. "Raphael here was going to tell us something important."

"Oh?" Leonie's eyes widened slightly. "From Raphael? What would that be?"

Ignatz's head whipped towards Leonie, hand still trying to cover Raphael's mouth. Claude could barely see his face, but he could still see Ignatz's shoulders tensed up. "No! Nothing of the sort!"

"Oh! What is all this about?"

Flayn had entered the room in the midst of the commotion. Claude noticed that she had kept the hairstyle that Hilda had done for her yesterday. It was a simple hairstyle, with wavy hair that curled a lot towards the bottom, likely due to Flayn having held the same, curly hairstyle for a long time before changing it.

Claue heard Hilda gasp from behind. "Oh, Flayn! Come over here, I have something for you!" Hilda reached into the pile of accessories, and Flayn's eyes widened with surprise before moving past the students gathered at the center of the room.

She sat next to Hilda, and Claude watched as the pink-haired girl pulled out a blue ribbon from the pile and pulled up a few strands of Flayn's hair. "Now, sit still for a bit, okay?"

"O-Oh!"

Claude's eyes darted over to Marianne. The blue-haired girl slouched over slightly, and she dropped her hands from her face, holding them together in front of her. She looked away. "Um... I didn't expect everyone to already be here..."

Lysithea poked her head out from behind Marianne, glancing around the room. "Everyone but our professor anyway." Lysithea's face scrunched up in thought. "Where are they? Usually they arrive before we do..."

Ignatz pulled his hand away from Raphael's mouth, dropping his arms by his side. His eyes met with Claude’s. "You didn't, uh, see them, did you?"

Claude hummed, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I usually do, but I didn't see Teach walk out when I went downstairs this morning. Maybe they overslept?"

"Our teacher? Oversleeping?" Leonie's voice edged on disbelief.

"This is the teacher that... you know." Claude held up one of his hands and spread his fingers out. Leonie stared at his five outstretched fingers for a few moments, before her eyes widened with understanding. Claude put his hand down. Didn't want people questioning why he did that.

Judging by the way Lysithea was glaring at him, eyes darting between the open doors of the classroom and Claude, she thought that was a risk.

Lorenz saved him from Lysithea possibly yelling at him when he looked up at Raphael. His face paled. "Why do you have a priest hat on your head?"

Sylvain pointed at Hilda, who was fiddling with a few strands of Flayn's hair. "She got the book off the table and read ahead... somehow." Sylvain turned to Hilda, frowning. "How could you even read ahead without your brain dying from that grammar?"

"My brain's already dead," Hilda replied, with a smile on her face.

"Well, if it's something she wants me to do, then I'll do it!" Raphael pumped his fist in the air, smiling widely.

Claude laughed, shaking his head. "Dude, if that hat is squeezing your head like that, I don't think that's good."

A laugh came from his side, and the room’s attention turned to Marianne, who covered her mouth the instant everyone began to stare at her. She looked back down at the ground. "Um… Sorry, it—sorry…” 

Her eyes drifted towards Hilda, who held a strand of Flayn's curly hair, but wasn't doing anything with it. Marianne instantly stared back down at the ground, cheeks flushing slightly. 

Claude laughed to himself, walking over to Hilda, who still hadn't moved from her spot. If he squinted, he could see red on her cheeks. _ Ah, _ the lovebirds couldn't hide their own feelings, huh? He leaned on the desk, standing in front of Flayn, and pushed a bit of the pile to the side. 

"Sooo..." he whispered, and Hilda immediately hissed at him, dropping Flayn’s hair and the ribbon. Kneeling down, she picked up the bow she had dropped. Claude couldn't help smiling slyly. "The blue-haired girl, huh?"

"Claude, I swear..." Hilda sighed, standing up straight with the ribbon clenched in her hands. "If I weren't doing Flayn's hair, I would _ strangle _ you."

Claude looked down at Flayn, who looked like she was struggling not to laugh Claude looked back up at Hilda. "C'mon, you can tell your future Duke Riegan about a silly little crush."

"Claude, I swear to Sothis—"

"Professor, why are you carrying a fish?" Leonie asked, and Claude's eyes darted up towards the door.

His classmates darted out of the way, excluding Leonie, who was just staring at Teach in disbelief. 

Indeed, Byleth was standing in the doorway, holding a fish in their hands. They glanced at Leonie, then down at the fish, before they started to glance around the classroom. "I wanted to get a gift for Flayn. Is she here?"

"Yes!" Flayn rose a hand in the air, waving at the professor, and Hilda focused back on Flayn's hair. 

Byleth's eyes passed over Claude, and then glanced over the pile. For a moment, Claude swore that he saw a brief flicker of confusion flash across their face—their eyebrows and nose scrunched up. It was gone within a split second though, and Byleth started to walk over to their desk, fish still in hand. "What is the pile?"

"Accessories," Hilda said, pointing her free hand at the book on the desk. "I read a little bit ahead."

Byleth stared at Hilda. "Isn't your brain dead now?"

Sylvain burst out laughing.

* * *

Claude held Sylvain's hand in his, looking at Hilda directly in the eye. 

Hilda had placed a witch hat on her head, and was wearing earrings with big purple gems. Standing next to Hilda was Lysithea, who wore a black mask and held a stick in her hands.

Claude wore shoulder plates, and had tossed aside the knight helmet Hilda offered him earlier. Sylvain had placed flowers into his hair, and had tried to comb his hair back. _ Tried _ being the key word. His hair was still messy, and he did not look like a damsel at all.

Linhardt was with Byleth at the front of the classroom, watching them write down his goals on the board.

If Claude was being honest, he was nervous that the other side of the board had their timeline notes. To say he was relieved that Byleth didn't seem to know there was another side to the board was great, but he would have to discuss that with Sylvain later tonight.

Claude let his eyes land back on Hilda.

"What's the next line?" He asked in his normal voice. They had just finished up a part, and Claude didn't know what was next.

Leonie looked down at the book, and he could see her wince. 

_ Oh, something bad happened again. _

Claude sighed. "Do I have to hand Sylvain over to Hilda again?" 

"Yep." Leonie looked up from the book. "Basically that the Death—_ Dark _ Knight somehow pulls a teleportation spell out of his ass and takes the maiden right out of the knight's arms."

"Oh, come _ on _," Sylvain groaned. "Can't I just sit in the middle? This is the sixth time I've been exchanged from knight to witch."

"Nope," Claude said, pulling his hand from Sylvain's and walking around him. "It's funnier this way." He stood behind Sylvain, hands held out slightly. "Okay, Lysithea, do your knight voice."

Lysithea glared at him, but she sighed and held up a hand in the air. She made some dark magic spark around her hands, and, while Claude couldn't see it very well because Sylvain was taller than him, he heard some rather impressive cracks in the air.

"_ Fool _ ." Lysithea's voice was as deep as she could make it, and surprisingly, it only cracked a little bit. " _ You haven't gotten away yet. Behold. _"

Then she snapped her fingers. 

Claude took this as a cue to push Sylvain. Sylvain yelped and almost stumbled right into Lysithea, who had to dodge the body falling towards her. Lysithea shot Claude a sharp glare, and he shrugged, plate pieces digging into his uniform. "Oh _ no _, my maiden," Claude said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Whatever will I do without you by my side again? I must—"

There was a knock on the door, and everyone almost startled out of their seats. Claude paused.

Flayn stood up from her seat, pushing aside the fish bone that she had left on her table, and walked towards the closed doorway. She opened the doors, and Claude looked back to see Dorothea standing there, a dumbfounded look on her face.

"Why," Dorothea asked, hand still hovering in the air from knocking on the door, "are you all dressed like that?"

Claude looked to Raphael, who had priest garbs draped over him. Leonie wore a cap, and had an apron tied over her normal clothes. Ignatz had a wilting flower on his head, and was currently washing some makeup off of his face with a cloth. Marianne was staring at the pile of accessories still left, almost as if she were deciding if she was going to dress up or not. Lorenz stood in the corner, palm covering on his face.

"Authority training," Claude replied, and he heard Sylvain choke back a laugh.

"...Right." Dorothea glanced up at Byleth, then back to Claude. "I'm just here to tell you all that it's lunchtime. Probably should take off your accessories, yes?"

"Of course! See you in the dining hall, Dorothea." Claude tried to raise his hand into his signature peace-out, trying to wave goodbye, but winced as the armor plate dug into his shoulder.

_ Okay. Nevermind. _

Dropping his hand to his side, he watched as Dorothea rolled her eyes, turning around and leaving them be.

* * *

Leonie patted Raphael's shoulder, swallowing the food that she had shoveled into her mouth. "You know you did an amazing job as the priest, right? I could sense that you were trying to do something with it!"

Raphael beamed, and Claude couldn't help but smile at the sight. The archer stuck a fork into the leg of meat he got from the dining hall, looking over to Lysithea, who currently looked like she wanted to die.

Flayn sat beside Lysithea, eagerly stealing the vegetables from her plate. Lysithea's eyes snapped to attention and she grabbed her fork, stabbing it into the vegetable Flayn had just swiped, hissing. "I need this!"

"But you do not enjoy this type of food, so I think—"

"No, listen to me, Flayn. I. Need. To. Eat. This." Lysithea waved around the veggie on her fork, giving it a disgusted look. "It doesn't matter what I think of it, I just need to eat it."

"But—"

Claude felt a hand on his shoulder, and he looked over to Sylvain, who was grinning at him. "Hilda says she needs a book. Why don't you grab one from your room, o hoarder of books?"

Claude tried not to pay attention to how good the flowers in Sylvain's hair looked, shaking his head. "_ Hah _, no. If she wants a book, she can go to the library and grab one herself."

"_ Clauuude... _" Hilda whined, leaning back in her seat. "All the library books sing the praises of the goddess! How can I find something that’s actually written well so I don't have this become my writing style?"

"You live with it, I guess." Claude shrugged.

"Yeah, Hilda." Sylvain turned back to the pink-haired girl, barely paying any attention to his food. "Guess your writing style is just mismatched sentences, bad grammar, and blindly praising the goddess now."

Hilda's groan grew louder, and Lorenz broke off from his conversation with Ignatz, frowning at them. "Must you complain? It is a... _ debatable _ book, yes, but—"

Linhardt snickered into his hand, and Lorenz paused mid-sentence, frown deepening as he looked at Linhardt. "What?"

"Oh, nothing. Never thought I would hear a noble call a book directed for the goddess 'debatable'," Linhardt replied with a smile on his face.

"So all those props and stuff were for a _ book _?" A sudden voice came from behind them, and Sylvain almost jumped out of his seat, whipping around to see Dorothea standing nearby.

"Well, yeah, of course," Sylvain said, absentmindedly brushing his fingers over the flowers still in his hair. Claude turned his attention to Sylvain and Dorothea, tuning out the conversation coming from the rest of the table.

Claude asked, "So, you know how our week's been. How about yours?"

Dorothea laughed. "Um, my first week so far has been Manuela talking about how her dates are going, and how we should all learn to sing just a little bit. I'm showing off, of course, but..."

"Hey, Dorothea." Sylvain interrupted, and Dorothea glared at him. Sylvain continued on, not deterred, "Would it be alright if I flirted with you?"

Dorothea paused. "What?"

"Would it be okay if I flirted with you? For..." Sylvain's eyes wandered over past Claude's shoulder, and Claude knew he was looking over at the Blue Lions table. "You know."

"Well, of course. Only if you let me do the same, though."

"Naturally."

Claude smiled. "Ah, the wonders of love. Asking if you can flirt with someone... truly, the peak of chivalry."

"Shut up, Claude." Sylvain rolled his eyes. Hilda burst out laughing, leaning onto Marianne's shoulder.

Byleth looked up from the table with the other faculty, looking confused. Well, Claude _ thought _ they looked confused—their brow had turned upwards ever so slightly, and their eyes narrowed Then Jeralt pat Byleth on the shoulder, and Byleth froze up.

_ Huh. _ Claude squinted. He would have to note that down for later investigation of Byleth.

* * *

"Asking if you can flirt with Dorothea. Really?" Claude leaned his chair back, kicking his feet up onto his desk. "If it wasn't for the fact that the Blue Lions table is so far away, I think Ingrid would've had a heart attack."

"It’s to help me escape from her watchful eye!" Sylvain countered, holding their planning book in his hands. "If I just flirt with someone I look like I would flirt with—someone pretty who has beautiful hair—she won't suspect a thing!"

Claude could see that going poorly. Then again, he didn’t know the childhood friends’ dynamic that well. All the information he had on the quartet came solely from Sylvain talking about it during their late nights together—like the one they were having right now—as well as in the past. Or well, the _ future _past.

He shrugged, sliding his legs off his desk, kicking back into a normal sitting position. “Sure, alright. So what do we do about the board?”

"Oh, right. The thing I came in here to talk about." Sylvain brushed a hand over his neck, laughing. "Well, we probably need to get down all the notes, but the board is way bigger than our book, so..."

* * *

Claude leaned against the table, pressing a hand against his cheek. 

Last night was a mess of trying to remember what was on the board so Teach didn't ask them why they wanted to stay back after class, unaware of the notes written on the back of the board. After making an even further mess of his room, they managed to get all the notes down, so all they had to do was erase the board.

_ Ugh. _ He wasn't looking forward to that.

But _ hey _, he had some peak comedy in front of him right now. The knight he was playing was currently out of the story, and he was holding the book in front of him, staring at its horrible writing, misplaced words and weird fucking morals.

"Kay, so—" Claude started, causing the people gathered in the room to turn towards him. Byleth raised an eyebrow, and Claude took that as a victory towards his new personal goal of 'making Byleth express themselves earlier'. "The next scene involves the priest, village mom, and the holy knight. And—" Claude glanced back at the book, squinting.

... Did the author just pull something out of his ass? What the_ hell _? All of this time acting in class, coming up with various solutions, and suddenly the holy knight was—

"Um... Who else?" Marianne asked, and Claude could tell she was trying to force her voice to quiver. She had a few cross pendants draped around her neck, and has similar accessories woven into her hair. "Or is it just us, a—and you're..."

Ignatz finished for Marianne. "You're trying to spare us a scene... right?"

"I suppose. All this time—" Claude tapped the book with his free hand, "—it seems the Holy Knight and Priest have a special combination move that allows them to—if I read this right—teleport to any beloved, fair maiden and rescue her from her troubles with the pure power of the goddess."

Silence.

Sylvain laughed nervously, standing in the center of the room with Hilda, Lysithea, and Leonie. He rubbed a hand against the back of his neck. "Um... haven't the Priest and Knight been together in a few scenes now? Like, when the knight first tried to rescue me...?"

"And yet this only comes up now?" Hilda whined, her voice cracking as she slipped back into her normal, high-pitched tone. "That's not—"

Hilda paused.

Lorenz decided he would finish what she was going to say. "Not good writing, yes. We have been over this multiple times this week."

Flayn giggled, curling a strand of her hair around her finger. "It was quite enjoyable, however, to have watched you all so lovingly turn this into a story worth watching!"

"Indeed." Leonie nodded. "Plus, it's been fun to get dressed up, and Hilda loves to dress us up!"

"Lysithea has been excited about her Dark Knight role," Claude sung, and Lysithea turned red.

"N-NO! Claude, _ shut up! _"

* * *

It was the final chapter. The week had gone by so fast, and Claude was honestly surprised it went by without many hitches.

It was almost Saturday, and they had managed to get to the final scene of the book. Granted, this was only because they had skipped over some oddly placed goddess praising sections that Byleth looked confused about, but the story was fine without those scenes.

Now they were here. Claude, with his knight-like pauldrons on him. Sylvain, with the flowers in his hair. Hilda, with a wand-like branch and big hat on her head. Lysithea, with the dark mask and a sword in her hands.

Lysithea laid on the ground, with Hilda clutching her chest and starting to fall dramatically.

"Curse you and your... devotion... to the goddess..." Hilda coughed, pressing her side to the ground. "_ You have defeated meee.... _" Hilda let her outstretched hand fall, and she closed her eyes.

Lysithea couldn’t help giggling from her spot on the ground, and Flayn made a shushing noise. Linhardt watched with half-lidded eyes, a slight smile on his face. Marianne was trying to hide her laughter, Leonie was _ not _ trying to hide her laughter, and Lorenz rolled his eyes.

Raphael reached up to pull his priest hat off.

"Hold on, priest boy," Claude said, and Raphael paused. Claude looked over to Sylvain, the smile on his face widening. "We gotta have that classic fairytale ending!"

"This isn't a classic fairytale, in case you haven't noticed," Lorenz scoffed.

Claude ignored him. He reached out and wrapped a hand around Sylvain's waist. He got onto the tips of his toes, wrapping his arm around Sylvain's neck and placing his hand on his shoulder.

"What are you—" Sylvain's eyes flashed with realisation, but it was too late. 

Claude pulled Sylvain downwards, swinging around and dipping Sylvain below him. Claude thought he heard a gasp from nearby, but he ignored it, simply settling for holding Sylvain in his arms.

"Ah..." Sylvain's voice rose a little bit, playing into his character. "And what are you doing, fair knight?"

"I will be taking my maiden home tonight," Claude said, lowering his voice. "To seal the deal, however, I will take her with a kiss."

Sylvain smiles, fluttering his eyes. "Ah... then kiss me however you wish, fair knight!"

Claude leaned down—

And then the doors to the classroom slammed open.

Whoever was about to speak stopped. Claude looked to the side, disappointed that he wasn't able to kiss Sylvain's nose, and saw who was _ probably _ the worst person to interrupt them at this exact point in time.

_ Seteth. _

Seteth was staring at the scene, an absolutely dumbfounded look plastered on his face. His mouth was agape, his eyes were wide, and his eyebrows were lifted as high as they could go.

"Wh… What is going on here?" Seteth asked, barely holding together his usual serious tone. Barely. "Why was Claude about to—?"

"Authority training," Byleth deadpanned, and Claude struggled to keep his grip on Sylvain, trying to hold his laughter back. Sylvain chuckled, and Hilda started laughing loudly. The other students, for their part, started to chuckle as well.

"It works very well!" Flayn said, pushing her hands against her cheeks. Seteth's eyes darted over to her. 

Seteth looked back to Claude, then towards where Byleth was. "...Authority training. This just looks like acting. I expected this from Manuela, not—"

"The new mercenary you know nothing about," Byleth finished his sentence, and Claude's curiosity got the best of him there. He looked back to Byleth, and was disappointed to find their stoic expression still there. Maybe Byleth did smile, and Claude just missed it. "Oh, yes, I also found a use for the book you gave me."

Back to Seteth. Claude almost laughed again at seeing Seteth struggle to piece together words. "I.... the book I gave you? _ This, _ from the book I gave you?" Seteth continued staring for a few moments, then shook his head. "I... will question you about this later. The library will be open for pick up on Sunday. Tomorrow, you and Claude will head to my office. I have your mission ready."

Oh, right. Bandits. Claude rolled his eyes. "You could at least ask before assigning me an activity."

Seteth stared at him with disappointment in his eyes. Claude did _ not _ miss having that look directed at him.

"Of course." Byleth said, thankfully getting Seteth’s attention off of him. "If you are wondering, Flayn is right there."

Flayn waved, her long, curly hair bouncing with the motion. There was a bow placed in her hair, sitting on the back of her head, with a few strands connected to the bow and falling out beneath it. "Hello!"

"Oh, Flayn! It is great to see you. Why are you with the Golden Deer?"

"It is fun being here!" Flayn grinned. "They are very nice, and also amusing to watch! Considering it was their first week, it seems like they're a friendly group. Could I stay here during classes, brother?"

Seteth stared. His eyebrows furrowed together, and his eyes glanced over to Claude, who was still holding Sylvain in a dip. "... We will discuss this further. In your room."

Fuck. Claude didn't know where that was. 

Flayn's shoulders fell. Slowly, she pushed herself up from her seat, glancing back at the class. Claude felt a little silly for still dipping Sylvain, so he pulled themselves up. Sylvain pulled out of his grip, straightening up. _ So, there went the possibility of Plans B and D… _

Flayn grinned. "See you all tomorrow, since it will be your free day!"

"Right, of course!" Hilda said, from behind Claude, and Claude glanced over to her. She had a weird smile on her face. "See you tomorrow! Remember to love your hair!"

Flayn giggled. Then, she gripped her father's hands in her own, and left the classroom.

The room grew quiet.

Byleth interrupted the silence. "Good work. I will set up some tasks for next week, and use your information to get study books." They tapped their desk, and everyone looked towards them. "For now, you are free to go. Do not disturb the other classes, Sylvain."

"What? Why me?" Sylvain whined, voice high. Byleth shrugged, and Claude snickered.

_ Ah, Byleth. Ever the deadpan delivery. _

Their classmates started to remove their props and costumes. Lysithea and Hilda lifted themselves up from the ground, dusting themselves off and talking amongst themselves.

Sylvain reached up to his hair, and Claude pressed a hand to his arm, causing Sylvain to look over.

"I like the flowers in your hair.” Claude grinned. "I think it matches you."

Sylvain's eyes widened slightly. "Oh... really?" His hand grazed the flower. There was a moment of silence, before Sylvain laughed, reaching up and taking the flower out of his hair. "Well, I'll keep it in my room."

"But it's my flower!" Hilda called out, as she placed her stick in the pile of accessories.

"Nope, mine now. Deal with it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi, ell (the editor) here. i’m really sorry about the delay in getting this chapter up! pix actually finished it last weekend, but unfortunately, real life got much more hectic than i was anticipating. for now, please bear with me as i work to edit through the next few chapters in between schoolwork and other responsibilities.


	10. Free Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sothis popped out in front of them, hands on her hips and a pout on her face, and Byleth halted to a stop. Even if Byleth could walk through her form, her popping up was still a surprise to them.
> 
> "You are NOT going to go fishing," Sothis said firmly, brows furrowing. "That is an order from your goddess."  
\---  
Byleth takes advantage of a free day.

When the sun rose that morning, Byleth rose with it. They stared blearily out their window, watching the sky fade from the black of night to the blue of morning. As they stared, Sothis shimmered into being, a yawn escaping her lips. Byleth yawned soon after, covering their mouth with one hand.

"Ah, just as tired as I am, it seems." Sothis smirked, "Today is a free day, is it not?"

"Have to grab Claude," Byleth said, pushing themselves up from their bed. "First mission... that was the... wait." 

Byleth's eyebrows scrunched together. "...What was the first mission?" 

Sothis sat upright in the air, pressing a hand against her cheek thoughtfully. "...I don't quite remember. And since your memories seem faded in that regard, we cannot easily check. Darn it," Sothis sighed. "Guess we shall find out from Seteth."

A flash of panic shot through Byleth's body, but they forced it down. Sothis looked in their direction, a frown on her face.

"Remember—this is going to be the same mission as last time. Nothing too big has happened to make the timeline go completely off course!" Sothis reassured, clapping her hands together and forcing a smile on her face. "Fate is not so easily thrown off course!"

"Right." Byleth plastered a smile on their face. "Thanks, Sothis." 

Byleth got up from the bed and went to their closet, grabbing the uniform inside. "Now, could you turn away?"

"Byleth. I am a part of you," Sothis deadpanned, her expression blank. "I know about your body."

"Not a part of me right now," Byleth retorted, tossing the hat that came with the outfit aside. "Be decent."

Sothis rolled her eyes, but she turned away from Byleth.

* * *

"Bandits?" Claude sighed, sounding utterly bored. Internally, Byleth found themself agreeing with his tone of voice. Claude looked over at Byleth, rolling his eyes. "Sounds like a mission they just pulled off the shelf."

Claude looked into the air, starting to mime out what he thought they did—pulling out a book from the bookshelf, flipping through the imaginary book's pages, then pointing at a page. "Ah yes," Claude said, pushing up imaginary glasses with one hand. "The routine bandit visit that we have to deal with,  _ perfect  _ for the new teacher."

It took a fair bit of effort for Byleth to stop themself from laughing. Instead, they just smiled.

Claude looked up from his imaginary book, and his bored look instantly changed to a smile of his own. "Ah! Teach, gracing me with another smile. How nice." He nodded, and tossed away the imaginary book. "For a mercenary that doesn’t express at all when we talk, I'm surprised!"

"I am the Ashen Demon," Byleth replied, smile vanishing as they tried to keep their voice neutral. "I cannot afford to smile."

"Ahhh, I see, I see." Claude nodded, placing a hand against his chin. "Didn't know that."

Silence filled the air between them. Byleth watched as Claude stroked his chin, seemingly lost in thought. It reminded Byleth of Claude—the one with the beard. Did Claude always stroke his chin, and Byleth only noticed it when he was older and had a beard?

"Interesting information!" Claude looked back up to Byleth and grinned. "Well, gotta tell the rest of the group, then it's free time! Might spend my time reading, of course."

Byleth nodded. Claude loved to read. "Have a good time."

Claude looked at Byleth for a few seconds. Then he nodded back, before he turned and left.

Byleth stared after him for a while, before they realized something. 

_ Free time. _ Which meant… 

Byleth started to walk out of the room, heading for the exit. A free day meant that they didn't have to think about planning lessons. A free day meant that they could do whatever they wanted. And that meant—

Sothis popped out in front of them, hands on her hips and a pout on her face, and Byleth halted to a stop. Even if Byleth could walk through her form, her popping up was still a surprise to them.

"You are  _ NOT _ going to go fishing," Sothis said firmly, brows furrowing. "That is an order from your goddess."

Byleth glanced around the room. Nobody was around, so they spoke. "But I like fishing."

Sothis rolled her eyes, letting out an exasperated sigh. "You are going to talk with the students. You  _ will _ like it. You will  _ not  _ be an asocial hermit."

"But I  _ was  _ an asocial hermit," Byleth whined, deadpan tone giving way.

Sothis groaned, rolling her eyes before she floated towards Byleth and grabbed their wrist. Byleth pulled their gloved hand away, staring Sothis in the eye. They stared at her for a few moments, then put their hand down, a sigh escaping their lips. "I suppose it wouldn't hurt."

"Good," Sothis said, a smug grin replacing her frown. "It wouldn't hurt to at least get to know your students! Even if you already know them, but… it isn’t as if they know that."

* * *

Byleth walked by the fishing pond. They paused, starting to rub their hands together. They watched as a student from one of the general classes, who had soft blue hair, pulled out a fishing rod and started to attach some bait to the line.

Sothis swung around to face them, anger tracing her features. "No, Byleth. No fishing." She swung her finger around in the air, huffing. "What did I just say in the Audience Chamber?"

_ I will talk to students, and I will not be an asocial hermit,  _ Byleth responded in thought, their eyebrows turning downwards.  _ I heard you. _

"Then don't go towards the fishing pond, idiot!" Sothis floated towards Byleth and placed her finger right up to their forehead. "I swear, if I wasn't hanging around in that head of yours all day, I would say you have no brain at all!"

Byleth let out a soft laugh, starting to walk again. Sothis let out a chuckle of her own, and floated after Byleth.

* * *

"Greetings, Professor!" A man at the gates greeted, and Byleth's eyes darted over to him. He had a bright smile on his face, and while the soldier uniform covered up most of his features, Byleth knew that voice and those bright green eyes well. "It's a free day today, isn't it?"

"It is," Byleth said, trying to keep their voice neutral. A smile was threatening to climb onto their face. "Have you seen my students?"

"Oh! Uh...." The Gatekeeper frowned, and Byleth forced themselves not to frown with him. "Ah, I don’t know who teaches the classes this year, since I just guard these lovely gates. But I have seen various students around, including that suspicious guy who's the house leader of the Golden Deer. Don't quite know his name!" 

Byleth winced, but straightened up, hoping the Gatekeeper didn't notice their slip up. The Gatekeeper, despite all of his smiles and laughs, did regard Claude with the same suspicion as everyone else in the Cathedral. It wasn't fair for Claude though, and Byleth wondered if that was also another reason why he only saw other people as a means to his goal.

The Gatekeeper continued, "Well, other than that... Nothing to report!"

Byleth smiled, turning away and walking towards the marketplace.

_ Dorothea stood in the marketplace, watching as soldiers passed through. Byleth brushed a hand through their green hair, watching as the soldiers under Claude's command bartered with the blacksmith to get the price of their bows down. _

_ Dorothea's eyes wandered over to Byleth, and her eyes widened. She walked over to Byleth, and placed a hand against her head in a salute. Byleth's eyebrows pressed together in confusion. Dorothea wasn't one to salute, was she?  _

_ At this expression change, Dorothea's lips quirked up, like she was trying to resist laughing. "Greetings, Professor!" She said, and Byleth noticed she made her voice noticeably perkier in tone. "Nothing to report!" Byleth sighed, smile returning to their face, and Dorothea beamed. "Heh, I knew that would cheer you up! Almost like he was standing right in front of you, wasn't it?" _

* * *

Sothis popped out again, form shimmering into being as she floated over to something sparkling on the ground. "Oh? What's this?" 

Byleth walked over to where she hovered and bent down, staring at a perfume bottle shaped like a heart. It was only halfway filled, which meant that whoever had it must have used it already. They picked it up, rolling it around in their hands. This was Hilda's, they remembered it from last time she lost this.

"Where do you suppose she may be?" Sothis asked, tapping a finger on her chin. She looked back at the perfume bottle as Byleth stared at it, then shook her head. "It seems our students losing things will always be a constant, isn’t it? Some people!"

"Indeed," Byleth spoke to the busy air of the marketplace, pocketing the perfume bottle in one of their many pockets. They turned and headed up the steps, looking towards the sky. The sun was still slowly reaching its peak. The free day had much more time left to go. What would they do after locating Hilda?

"Maybe train a bit?" Sothis suggested, floating alongside Byleth. "Our body may not be too used to our skills. While we did fine in the Mock Battle, I think we took a few too many hits to be safe with."

"Right," Byleth mumbled, only for Sothis to seemingly notice something. Sothis attempted to tap Byleth's shoulder, only for her hand to go straight through it. Byleth got the message, though, and looked up towards where Sothis was looking.

In the distance was Hilda. She still wore her hair in that same high ponytail, and Byleth realised they were just going to have to begrudgingly accept that they would be seeing the pink-haired girl wear the familiar hairstyle for the rest of the monastery days. However, that wasn’t the unusual part.

The unusual part of the entire situation was Marianne.

She was clinging to Hilda’s hand, pressing a hand to her chin and laughing—about what, Byleth didn’t know. But what they  _ did  _ know was how tall and confident Marianne seemed to appear, back straight and head held high.

Hilda and Marianne were also a fair distance away, so they likely didn't see Byleth watching them.

"This would be a good time to question them!" Sothis pointed out, beaming. "What are they doing? Is Hilda dragging Marianne around, and is Marianne finding something about her hilarious? Did we miss this the first time? Go,  _ go! _ " And with that, Sothis melted away, returning to her usual spot in Byleth's head.

Byleth took the perfume bottle out of their pocket, and started heading over to the duo. The sound of their boots clacking against the ground was loud, though, and Marianne started to slouch, almost as if she had done something wrong. Hilda glanced around, and Marianne broke apart from Hilda, mouthing something that Byleth couldn't hear until they got closer.

"...a—and I really should be with Dorte," Marianne stuttered holding her hands together in front of her. "S—Sorry, it was a great time, b—but maybe I shouldn't have!"

"Marianne, wait, it's just—" Hilda held her hands out, but something about it seemed... lazy. Hilda glanced over at Byleth, and her eyebrows scrunched together in an indescribable expression. "...Hey, Professor! I’m rather busy right now, so if you could perhaps hurry yourself up..."

_ “Is that a way to speak to your professor?!”  _ Sothis’ angry voice echoed through their mind, but Byleth ignored the goddess’ words and pulled out the perfume bottle instead. "Sorry. I think this is yours."

"Oh, fuck," Hilda cursed, taking the perfume bottle out of Byleth's hands. "I was looking for this this morning—did I lose it on my shopping trip?" Hilda sighed, shaking her head. "Sorry, Professor. Things are pretty rough right now. Well," Hilda turned on her heel, and dashed off, yelling, "See ya during class!"

Sothis popped into being again, an angry expression on her face. "Wow. That's rather rude of her, don't you think? She might have been dogging Marianne about something. I think—"

"We don't know them well enough yet," Byleth replied, watching as Hilda disappeared around the corner. "Remember what I was like back then."

"Well, you still had things you cared about! Like Lorenz!" Sothis placed her hands on her hips, huffing. "Well, if you don't want to dig into Marianne, alright! Go after Lorenz, then!"

Byleth sighed.  _ If Lorenz is even around. Maybe he's in town. _

* * *

"Oh, Professor Byleth!" A voice said from behind, and Byleth's hands shot to their side to grab their sword as they turned around, only for them to realize that it was just Ingrid. She winced and stepped back. "Ah, sorry, you were a mercenary, right?" Ingrid placed one hand on the sword hilt by her side. "I'll keep that in mind."

Byleth nodded. "Thanks."

"Well, anyway..." Ingrid's eyebrows furrowed. "Why did Sylvain join your class so early? It's just..." She trailed off, and Byleth waited. 

What was she going to say?

Eventually, Ingrid shook her head. "What did he discuss with you, anyway? Why did he decide to jump ship so early?"

Byleth's face stayed neutral, but their brows creased slightly. 

That... was an interesting question, wasn't it?

Why  _ was _ Sylvain hanging around the Audience Chamber? When did Claude get the chance to tell Sylvain about Byleth being a teacher? Why was it then that he wanted to join, instead of partway through the second month? 

Byleth eventually just shrugged. "I do not know. He requested to join, I accepted."

"He didn't... say anything?" Ingrid asked, a baffled look replacing her previous angry one. "Not even a comment on your features?"

Features. Like their face. Byleth bit their lips. "No. He hadn't."

Ingrid stared at them for a few more moments. Then she stared at her feet, clenching her teeth. "Dammit, another line burned." She looked back up, a weak smile plastered onto her face. "Thank you for your time, I'll be leaving now."

With that, she turned and left, entering the Entrance Hall Byleth had just emerged from.

Sothis stared after her. "...What was that about?"

Byleth shrugged again.

* * *

Byleth grabbed a training sword off the rack before they paused, turning it over in their hands. It didn't feel as heavy to them, for some reason.  _ Aren't they usually heavier?  _

"I think that may have been because of the war," Sothis commented, eyebrows furrowed. "I was just a slumbering little spirit in your mind by then, though, so I don't know."

_ That’s fair, _ Byleth thought to Sothis, heading towards the main area of the training grounds. There were dummies set up around the room and, judging by how beaten up some of them appeared to be, somebody had already used them before deciding to leave for the day.

_ Oh well. _

Byleth lifted the sword from their shoulder, and swiped it to the ground to their right, letting it hover just above the floor. 

They paused. 

Then, Byleth looked down, wondering why—

Oh,  _ right _ . This sword was not... Why did they think the sword was the Sword of The Creator?

"You know what's super disturbing about that sword now?" Sothis said, from where she was 'sitting'. "Isn't it made from my bones? How did my bones make that big thing, anyway?"

Byleth lifted the sword, holding it in a more traditional position as they glanced back to Sothis.  _ No clue. Maybe they enlarged your bones? _

"That's so gross to think about." Sothis shivered. "Just start training and let's get away from that line of thought, thank you!"

Byleth charged at the dummy in front of them, swinging their sword over their shoulder and slicing across the dummy, before pairing that into a strike going the opposite way. They then tried to spin around and strike again, but their body didn't react well to that and they stumbled.

Sothis laughed, and Byleth gritted their teeth. They decided to focus on working on their spin speed. It was essential for last moment strike blocks, or an additional strike that many didn't expect. It was useful for the Sword Of The Creator as well, and if the timeline went as it was supposed to, they would get back that sword in the following months.

They prepared their sword again, then leaped forward. The presence of Sothis watching them faded into the back of their mind, leaving them with just the training dummy. 

The sword in their hands, and an enemy to defeat. Slashes that paired into rolls, slashes into slashes, a block into a dive under and a jab. 

_ Strike. Strike. Miss. Strike.  _

The more they practiced, the more blows seemed to be landing on the dummy. The sound of a sword against a stuffed dummy seemed to double, despite the fact that Byleth was landing around the same amount of blows as before. In fact, it even seemed like the blows echoed at times.

_ What was— _

Byleth looked up, and Ignatz caught their gaze. The moment their eyes met, Ignatz froze, and dropped the sword in his hand. Byleth glanced down as the sword clattered to the ground, then up at Ignatz.

"H—hi professor! Sorry, I—uh—didn't see you there." Ignatz stepped back, holding his hands behind him. "I—I'll leave, if you want—"

"You can stay," Byleth said, an automatic response to the nervous Ignatz. How long ago was it that they had to assure Ignatz to stay and train? "It is nice to have an actual training partner."

_ And I can see how much you know. _ Byleth did not remember how much skill their students had in certain areas at this point. This could be a reminder to themself.

Ignatz blinked at them, registering what they said. Byleth leaned down and picked up the training sword, their headband slipping a little. They stood back up, and held out their hand with the sword in it to Ignatz. "Your weapon."

"A—ah, right. Gotcha." Ignatz reached out and took the sword from Byleth's hand, smiling. "Thank you."

" _ Polite, _ " Sothis remarked. Byleth could hear the smile in her voice.

Byleth led Ignatz away from the training dummies, getting into position. "On my signal."

* * *

Ignatz was better than they were expecting. 

Sure, he fumbled with some moves that Byleth found to be as natural as breathing, and he got caught off-balance trying some moves that Byleth would've easily parried, but he seemed to have some skill in his sword hand.  _ Good. _

As Byleth backed away, panting slightly, Ignatz pushed himself up from the ground, a shaky smile on his face. "Th...Thank you, Professor. You're rather skilled, aren't you?"

"There you are, Ignatz!" A voice shouted from behind Byleth, and Byleth turned to find Ashe—with his neatly combed hair parted in a style Byleth found eerily similar to his future self—running towards the green-haired boy. 

At the sight of the other boy, Ignatz started to smile and lifted a hand to wave. Ashe was holding a book, and once he got close to Ignatz, he opened up the book and flipped through a few pages. He pointed at one of the pages, whatever on it obscured from Byleth's angle.

"It reminds me of your art style, honestly!" Ashe beamed. "I just think yours is a bit different, but in a good way! Once you're done training, I can go show you the other books in this series!"

Ignatz's eyes widened behind his glasses. "Oh, for inspiration?" Ignatz said, letting out another breath after finishing his question. "Right, of course!" 

Ignatz looked over to Byleth, eyebrows furrowing together. "It's okay if I go... right?"

"Of course."

Ignatz beamed, and he gripped onto Ashe's arm. "Well, let's get going, then!"

"Yes, of course!" Ashe pulled his arm out of Ignatz's grip, grabbing Ignatz's hand with his own instead. Byleth swore they noticed Ignatz's face grow slightly red, but before they could ask about it, Ashe was already pulling Ignatz out of the training grounds.

Sothis faded into being, staring after them, eyebrows furrowed. "...Huh." She crossed her legs, ‘tapping’ her foot against the wall. "Don't remember them being a thing."

_ Like they're a couple? _ Byleth asked, remembering that wording from Sylvain, back in the future.

"Wha—" Sothis blinked, her foot phasing through the wall now. She pulled her foot out, shaking her head. "Hah, that's just about as likely as Claude and Sylvain getting together! No." Sothis waved her hand in the air. "I didn't remember them being friends before they were both a part of our class, and even then..."

Byleth stared after them.  _ Hm. Didn't consider that. _

Byleth glanced up towards the sky, watching the sky starting to change from blue to orange. _ Should probably head up to dad's room, he requested I get the tactics primer, and arrange getting the mercenaries to be assigned during battles. _

"Right, during lunch this week." Sothis nodded. "Well, let's get going, then!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! Due to life slamming Ell The Editor harder than she expected, I bought in some extra help! your future chapters will be edited by evaceratops- you may have seen her in the comments before. This may be the last chapter mainly edited by ell. Maybe. Ell may appear editing the extras, but the torch has been passed.
> 
> both editors are blue lions stans. just wanted to let you know.
> 
> work will continue!!


	11. Going Through The Motions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She found her shoulders relaxing. Just those two. Just her future classmates.
> 
> Future classmates. Right, she had to...
> 
> "Wh-What are you doing in here?!" Bernadetta shrieked. "I-I wasn't trying to avoid everyone!"  
\---  
the very first week of training... out of multiple. This is going to be a long year.

Byleth placed a pile of books on their desk, and Claude watched as they glanced over the classroom. The day before had been book collecting day and, judging by the big pile, they had gotten the class a  _ lot _ of study material.

"During this week," Byleth said, tracing the cover of the top book with their gloved fingers, "I expect to find you training your skills and studying the books I’ll assign to you." They walked to the board, grabbing a piece of chalk off their desk and starting to write.

Claude leaned forward on his desk, trying to see what Byleth was writing.

Had Byleth just written down something, then erased it? Whatever they had written first, Claude wasn't sure, because they erased it too quickly for him to process what had been written. Byleth then wrote down Weed Clearing -  _ Raphael and Ignatz - Monday, Wednesday, Friday. _

"Oh, hey! I think I'll be good at that!" Raphael cheered. Byleth nodded, then wrote down the next few.

_ Stable Duty - Sylvain and Claude - All Days _

Oddly, Sylvain didn’t seem to have any complaints, but Claude allowed himself a groan. Even in the future, they had people switch off! "C'mon, Teach..."

Byleth glanced over to him, then wrote down on the board,  _ Sky Patrol - Hilda and Marianne - Tuesday, Thursday _

"What?" Hilda gasped. "Are you really going to force me to work with the pegasi? Really?"

Byleth nodded. "You may get help from other classes, but do not depend on it."

"Ugh..." Hilda sighed, leaning onto Marianne. "Well, at least we're together, Marianne!"

"Wh-What?" Marianne stumbled over her words, and Claude resisted laughing at Hilda. They weren't going to do anything silly while up in the air, were they?

"Now," Byleth tapped the books on the table. "Grab your books. Two per student. Those of you focusing on one area of study, I got two books for you."

Claude looked behind him, to where Linhardt was... sleeping. Claude sighed, and got up from his desk, turning around and walking to his side. After a few moments of staring at Linhardt's sleeping form, and the rest of the class approaching the front of the classroom, Claude leaned down... and flicked Linhardt in the nose.

"Ow! What-" Linhardt's eyes focused faster this time, and he blinked. "Ah, did Byleth assign us something?"

"Books." Claude pointed to the front of the classroom, where Hilda was picking up both her books and somebody else's books. "For studying. You know, a thing we have to do."

"How boring." Linhardt rolled his eyes. "Fine. Thank you."

"At the end of the week," Byleth said, as Claude went up with Linhardt to the front of the room, "I will be gauging your progress in the training room."

* * *

The dining hall was filled with noise as students from all around the monastery filed in and got their meals. Leonie munched on that day’s lunch, swallowing a bite as she read through the book she was assigned. Unlike the others- who had left their books behind in the classroom- she was really interested in what was in her pages.

While Claude laughed out loud at something Sylvain said, Marianne leaned over, glancing over the words in the book. "Oh... is, uh... is this about the diet of Pegasi?"

"Huh?" Leonie pulled her spoon out of her mouth, looking over to Marianne. Marianne looked to Leonie, then looked away, rubbing her hands together. Leonie put the spoon down on a handy napkin, and looked back at the book. "Oh, yeah. Kinda weird." She put the book down, leaning towards the blue-haired girl. "I didn't expect horses and pegasi to be different in that regard. I just thought that pegasi were winged horses."

"Oh, no." Marianne shook her head. "Pegasi need lighter bones for flight, not to mention that their anatomy needs to accommodate their wings. So even though they may appear the same as horses, to compensate for the changes, they can eat things that horses can't... but also can't have other things. Like... um..." Marianne looked down at her lap. "Your book probably goes over that. Sorry."

"No, no, you're fine!" Leonie laughed, waving her hands in the air. "Glad you told me! Honestly, I probably would've just given my pegasus an apple without realizing what a mistake it was, so it’s a big help." Leonie patted her chest. "Time to put it to memory!"

* * *

Dorothea dragged a hand through her hair, looking up at the board while Manuela went over basic battle strategy. While it seemed everyone but her was enraptured- Bernadetta was in her room today- she couldn't help herself from taking the strategy on the board and applying it to an actual battle.

_ That won't work, _ she told herself, mentally,  _ Without the use of terrain, a division of forces will be noticed immediately... you have to make sure your retreat and splitting up is disguised, so the enemy won't notice... _

Manuela turned around, and Dorothea sat up, placing a smile on her face. Manuela glanced over to her, smiled back, and Dorothea felt a pang of guilt within her. Manuela... she was a close ally, in the future. A wonderful mage, one who worked wonders in the infirmary... one who comforted her when death seemed to pile and pile.

She watched as Manuela walked over to Ferdinand's desk, tapping it. "Now, tell me, von Aegir. What is the purpose of this strategy?"

"The purpose?" Ferdinand blinked, dumbfounded expression crossing his face. It passed, however, and he ran a hand through his short hair. "Well, it is to give your forces an advantage over the enemy force. If the opponent is caught on both sides by a pincer attack, their forces will be trapped and overwhelmed."

Basic. But Maneula nodded, smiling. "Good, good. Can someone tell me anything else about this?"

Dorothea rose her hand, and Manuela pointed over to her. "Oh, Dorothea! What do you have to tell us?"

"You'll have to watch out for enemy spies." Dorothea said, and Manuela hummed. "If an enemy gains knowledge that you're trying to catch them off guard, due to the lesser force of your split up army, they may be able to take one side out and leave the other side alone in the battle."

Manuela nodded. "Good, good." She walked back to behind the desk, tapping her stick to the board. "There are strengths and weaknesses to many strategies. As you are a magic heavy class, using this strategy will be useful for catching all sorts of opponents off guard... but!" Manuela tapped the board again. "You would also be very weak to surprise attacks set up by an opponent! Knowing when to break up or stick together is very important. Now..." Manuela laid her stick on her desk. "Time for studying. Read!"

Dorothea rolled her eyes, pulling out her swords book. She placed her reason book to the side- if she was going to be a Dancer again, she might as well start studying it early. Oh, and she knew the spells outlined in the book already, so...

Her eyes drifted to Edelgard. She looked so calm. Relaxed- no, wait. She looked like she wanted to relax, but the way her shoulders were riding up, the way her eyes seemed so stern... she was calm, yes, but she had always been... serious.

_ Had always been planning, _ Dorothea's brain provided, but then Edelgard looked up, and the books on her desk suddenly became much more interesting.

* * *

Sylvain gently ran a comb through the hair of one of the horses in the stables. Claude lifted up a pile of hay, gritting his teeth as he tossed it into another stable. "Why did they assign us to Stable Duty, when Marianne is right there, loving horses?"

Claude sighed, picking up a horse comb from whatever general knight in training left it there and walked around, looking for where the stablehands usually put the horse combs. "I wonder why they assigned Hilda and Marianne to Sky Watch, really."

"Wanted to torture you." Sylvain shrugged, starting to look around the still somewhat messy Stable. He met eyes with Claude, and Claude smiled at him. Sylvain took this as a signal to point outside. "If we're lucky, they might pass over us while on patrol. Come on."

"They're likely gonna be with the other sky patrollers from the Pegasus Knights in training, you know that, right?" Claude said, but he followed after Sylvain anyway.

They looked up into the sky, watching as two pegasi flapped their wings overhead. Claude put a hand on his forehead, getting onto his tiptoes to see who was on them.

Marianne and Hilda. They were, indeed, lucky.

Hilda steered her pegasus closer to Marianne's pegasus- close enough that the wings touched. The girl with her hair held up into a single ponytail adjusted herself in her seat, leaning over and holding out a free hand. Marianne looked up to Hilda, down to the hand, and then leaned over as well, reaching out her own hand and grabbing it in her own.

Hilda laughed, and, whatever she said afterwards, it was unable to be heard by the two down below.

Claude smiled. They really were going to do that, huh? Well, time to tease.

"HEY, YOU TWO!" Claude shouted, and the effect was obvious right away. Hilda and Marianne broke their hands apart, suddenly grabbing onto their pegasi's reins and pulling slightly. "WHY DON'T YOU GO DO SOMETHING MORE IMPORTANT... LIKE, SAY, KEEPING WATCH?"

Hilda shouted back, "WHY DON'T YOU GO AND DO YOUR STABLE WORK THEN, HUH? DON'T BOTHER US!"

Marianne pressed her face into her hands.

* * *

Bernadetta pulled another arrow from her quiver, spinning it in her hands. She notched the arrow, aimed the bow parallel to the ground, and pulled back. She fired- and the bowstring flung the arrow forward and completely missed the target.

"Ow," Bernadetta winced. Okay, she'd try that again when she had a better form. Not jumping into things was good. The sun was starting to sink lower in the sky, signalling that it was going to be time to hide again soon. But for right now, she needed to train.

She pulled another arrow from her quiver, nocking it onto her bow. Instead of holding it parallel to the ground, she held her bow like a normal person. She pulled the bowstring back, and was aware that her stance was very off. Ugh, she hated having her body be both smaller and unconditioned! Bernadetta adjusted her stance, holding it for a few moments, then fired.

"Ow!" Bernadetta winced again, shaking out her bow arm. "Ow." She had experienced worse than this, of course, but the sudden surprise pain she still wasn't a fan of. Shocker. She sighed. She might have to break for a few moments, get her arm to stop looking so red, then get back to training.

As she sat down, the door opened. By instinct, she froze, hands clenching tightly into fists and her eyes staring up in what she hoped was a fearful look at the door.

It was Ignatz and Ashe. Ashe and Ignatz both instantly went for the training weapons rack, still talking amongst themselves about... something. Bernadetta wasn't sure, at this distance. She found her shoulders relaxing. Just those two. Just her future classmates.

_ Future  _ classmates. Right, she had to...

"Wh-What are you doing in here?!" Bernadetta shrieked. "I-I wasn't trying to avoid everyone!"

Ignatz's eyes dashed over to her, and his own shoulders hiked up. "Wh-What?"

Ashe, bless his soul, turned around and smiled at Bernadetta. It was clear from his face that he was confused- and that almost sent Bernadetta's heart spiraling- but Bernadetta could keep herself together while acting scared. Ashe walked forward a few paces. "Um... Bernadetta? It's just us."

"Just you? Yeah, right!" Bernadetta said, jumping up from her spot. At least her arm wasn't feeling as sore anymore. She held her bow close. "I-If I know anything about the-the type of people you hang around, you're always... following each other!" Bernadetta waved a hand at Ignatz. "Claude's going to come in here, and he's going to try and touch me, and-"

"Bernadetta, we're friends!" Ignatz said, stepping forward. "What are you doing?"

Bernadetta breathed in, brushing a hand over her bow. "I'm  _ playing my character! _ " She hissed, and Ashe's eyes widened in understanding. "Now, please, leave me alone!"

"Bernadetta," Ashe said, smiling again. "I promise, it's just us two. We were talking over books, and decided to both train our archery skills together, while we were passing by."

Bernadetta let her shoulders slouch. "...Books?"

"Yep!" Ignatz nodded, smiling. "Books with interesting art styles, especially, but it's always fun to have a reading partner!"

Bernadetta hummed. Would that be sufficient...? "I see..." Did they always hang out like that, though, or did Bernadetta notice something new? ... Probably something they already did. "...S...So... would you mind if I trained with you?"

"I wouldn't mind!" Ashe beamed. "You're an archer too, yes?"

Bernadetta nodded, smiling.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Ignatz asked, looking around. "Let's get some training arrows and get practicing!"

* * *

Ashe looked up from his book. He stared at the board, watching as Hanneman went on and on about a strategy that, frankly, Ashe was bored of. He knew this. He knew how to take advantage of split up mages, how to find the weakest link of a group based on how they ran... things that Hanneman wasn't going to cover yet.

Ashe sighed, leaning into his palm. Wednesday. He had to wait through an entire month of already knowing the things his teacher was talking about before he could join the golden deer and be among people he was friends with.

Including Ignatz. Being able to talk with Ignatz while in classes instead of just training sessions and book hangouts would be nice.

Ashe noticed some people talking behind him and, after making sure Hanneman was still going on and on in his lecture, turned back and tried to pay attention to whoever was talking behind him.

Ingrid and Felix. They were talking to each other about something.

"It isn't because of Professor Byleth's looks." Ingrid groaned, rubbing a hand on her forehead. "That was my first guess, and I thought that was the case, but nope! Sylvain just asked to join!"

"Maybe they’re just oblivious." Felix huffed. "Ask Sylvain."

"Oh, you know how well that's gone!" Ingrid rolled her eyes, then started to lean lazily on the table. "Oh, I'm just going to talk casually to my new best friend,  _ Claude _ , and then run away the moment my old best friend appears!"

Ashe nervously adjusted the cuff of his uniform.

Felix huffed again, in his classic Felix way. "Right. Of course. Like that one time that Dimtiri asked him a question and Sylvain smashed his head into the ground." Felix ran a hand through his hair, frustrated. "Ugh. And he's started to train a lot, too."

Ashe pulled at his collar.

"That doesn't make any sense." Ingrid said, her eyebrows lifting. "Sylvain? The guy who's flirting with everyone he can see and who pushes off his training until the last moment?"

"In the week leading up to the Mock Battle," Felix pointed out, eyes narrowing, "I usually had Ferdinand training where I was. I looked up from training one day, and found that his orange hair was, instead, Sylvain's stupid orange hair, and he seemed...  _ different _ ."

Ingrid's eyes narrowed. "That really doesn't make sense."

_ Sylvain...!  _ Ashe found himself mentally cursing the other recruit. He found himself picturing Bernadetta from yesterday, pretending even when nobody was around.  _ Are you that unwilling to flirt again? Not that I'm complaining, but...! _

"Ashe?" Mercedes asked, scooting closer to him. Ashe froze in his spot as Sylvain’s old friends looked over as well. "Are you alright?"

"J-Just fine, thanks!" Ashe smiled at Mercedes, glancing over to Hanneman, who was starting to slow down in his talking. "We should just- pay attention to Professor Hanneman, yeah? Let's do that!"

Mercedes frowned. "Ashe..."

* * *

Leonie stepped into the stables, letting her eyes wander around the various edges of the room. The horses' hooves were loud in this chamber, and she heard faint mumbling from some unfortunate classmates that were assigned here.

"Why can't they just stay still for once?" Claude groaned. "How do you get them to stay still?"

"You don't." Sylvain replied, and Claude sighed.

"Come on... there has to be some trick to it! I have to clean their frickin' shoes..."

Leonie decided to ignore them and look for the stablehands- the ones that would give her an assigned pegasus. Or, well, one to train with. She had gotten to a page in her book that said to start training with an actual pegasus, so she was going to do that.

Her bootheels clicked on the stable floor as she looked around, waving hello to the pegasi she passed along the way. She must've been getting close.

Then she heard Ingrid's voice, and she smiled. A familiar voice, and the only other person who was training as a pegasus knight here. She approached the voice, getting closer to the blond-haired girl and the soldier she was talking to.

"Thank you so much! Now, why don't you-" Ingrid's eyes glanced over to Leonie, and she paused. "...oh?"

"Hi!" Leonie waved, smiling. "I'm probably going to be your only Pegasus Knight bud, unless someone in the Black Eagles decides to take up Pegasus Riding... for whatever reason."

Ingrid stared for a few more moments... before deciding to smile back. "Of course, of course! I just... I don't know what I was expecting from you, but a pegasus knight was not one of the choices I imagined!" Ingrid placed a hand on her hip, and Leonie noticed at that moment that she was holding a pegasus book in her other hand, hanging by her side. "Aren't you Captain Jeralt's number one fan?"

_ That would be Byleth, _ Leonie almost found herself saying, but she pushed her response back and nodded. "Yep! I'm his first apprentice!" She pumped a fist in the air, adjusting the book by her side. "Now, mister soldier guy... why don't you guide us to the training pegasi, hm?"

"Of course." The soldier bowed. "Right away, ladies."

* * *

Lysithea beamed at the peach sorbet in front of her, pulling out her spoon and shoving it into her sweet, delicious food. It wasn't the healthiest thing on the menu, but, dammit, it was definitely a main option, and she was going to take it!

As she shoveled a bite of food into her mouth, Claude basically collapsed at the table, groaning. "Ugh. Horseshoes. I am so glad I only have to deal with prettying up a wyvern's claws."

"It's not that bad!" Sylvain said, sitting down next to him. "Just have to finagle around, that's all." He looked to Lysithea, who was the only other person at the table at the moment. "...Hey, where's the rest of our class?"

Lysithea swallowed her food, pressing a hand against her forehead for a few moments. After a confirmation of no brain freeze, she put her spoon into her dish, looking at the two men in front of her. "Ignatz is likely with Ashe, training bows. Or he's with Raphael and pulling weeds and taking over the duties from another class. Marianne and Hilda are likely still returning from Sky Watch. Leonie is training with Pegasi. Lorenz is... somewhere, trying to flirt or something. Linhardt is sleeping near the Fishing Pond-"

"Where our Teach fishes while we're out training?" Sylvain asked, eyes widening.

"I... suppose?" Lysithea's eyebrows rose. "Didn't they only start doing that a month or so in, though?"

"Nah, we saw them go over to the fishing pond and take out the fishing rod." Claude shrugged. "Clearly always liked fishing."

Lysithea nodded. "...I see." Something about that didn't seem quite right- but then again, this was the teacher that was late to class one day to grab a fish for Flayn. Oh, speaking of...

"Have you guys seen Flayn?" Lysithea asked, her lips curving downwards. "After she was taken out of our class, I haven't seen her."

Claude and Sylvain gave each other worried looks.

"Please don't tell me it's bad," she said, faint panic rising in her chest.

"Nothing like that!" Sylvain waved his hands. "Her brother might have just told her to stay away from us!"

Lysithea blinked.

Then she put up a hand to her chin in thought. "...Considering what he walked in on, I think that makes sense."

"It was for the book," Claude groaned, "Not my fault Seteth decided knocking was overrated."

* * *

The end of the week. A time Bernadetta was looking forward to. Bernadetta thought that today might be a day where she could get out of her room, so here she was.

Sitting in a corner, away from her classmates, she watched as Manuela held her hand out in the air and let light sparkle around her fingers. Dorothea was watching with intensity, Edelgard- the kind Edelgard, not the emperor one- leaned on her desk, Hubert was standing in the corner like his usual creepy self, Petra was writing down with curiosity, Caspar just seemed very bored, and Ferdinand was staring with wonder at the magic.

At least she wasn't noticed here. She watched the magic, identifying it as the starting lights for a heal spell.

"Now, how do you activate a faith spell?" Manuela asked, letting the lights fade away. "That is a complicated matter, of course. How do you cast a spell based on your feelings?" Manuela turned to the board, picking up her chalk and starting to draw on the board. "Well, using your faith in the Goddess is, of course, preferred, but..."

A dark shape loomed over Bernadetta, and her heart stopped.

_ An axe, gleaming with orange and yellow. Two red shapes are drilled into its core, and the axe moved, almost as if it were alive. Almost like the Lance of Ruin that was right next to her. _

_ Edelgard, hair pulled up into curls, horns curling around her head, was staring right at her, eyes angry and narrow. "You. You could've been great. You could've been able to move beyond just being a Varley — It is clear that the position thrust upon you is not one meant for you." Edelgard adjusted her position, and the weapon gleamed again. "But... now, we are on opposite sides. For that? You die." _

_ Edelgard ran at her, and Bernadetta's heart leaped into her throat- _

"Bernie!" someone's voice called, and Bernadetta blinked out of her brief spell. She was gripping tightly onto someone's uniform, and she could feel the faint magical pulse of what felt like a faith spell. 

"Bernie... you're okay. That's in the past now. Shh..."

Bernadetta focused. She was... holding onto Dorothea. She glanced over to the right, almost freezing again at the sight of Edelgard- but she wasn't wearing horns. She was... wearing her hair down, with purple ribbons in it.

Right. Right. 

Bernadetta took a deep breath in, then out. She pushed Dorothea away, breathing in and out. Slowly. Her heart started to slow into its normal pulse. "I... thank you, Dorothea."

"It's no problem." Dorothea lifted her hands into the air, smile still on her face. "Glad to help a friend."

Edelgard frowned. "What was that about, anyway? She yelled something about not... killing her?"

Bernadetta looked down at her lap, pressing her knees together.

Dorothea huffed. "It's obviously a personal thing, Edie." Bernadetta registered footsteps going away from her. "You probably reminded her of someone that hurt her in the past. Come on, back to class time."

"Dorothea, didn't you tell me that you weren't very faithful?" Manuela asked, shock lining her voice. "And yet, what I saw there was definitely..."

"Didn't see anything, Professor Manuela! Probably just your eyes playing tricks on you. Don't we have some sort of end of week assessment or something we should get to?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the first chapter editted by evaceratops! thank you, eva.
> 
> also, the jeritza dlc.... interesting..... (takes down notes)


	12. Sessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "What are you doing?" Sothis asked, yawning.
> 
> Byleth only grunted for a response, and Claude turned to them, his eyebrows furrowing. "Ah, Teach, sorry, the bow doesn't seem to be in me tod-"
> 
> Byleth slashed their sword.   
\---  
Byleth assesses the class. Also, they lead a seminar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ....... i can explain
> 
> (i forgot. plain and simple. Life just kinda does that.)

Byleth took their class to the training grounds. A routine matter, at this point, and one that their students got used to, in the future: in order to assess their progress, they needed to see their skills.

If Byleth recalled correctly, sometime next week was when the Knights would track down the bandits, and then let the students know so that they could start on their way there.

Their class lined up against a wall, and Byleth looked over them. Judging by the way they were standing, and the energy that seemed to cause many to fidget, they might not have trained much. Only a bit of progress.

Byleth snapped their fingers, and the class directed their eyes towards them. 

"I will be gauging your current progress." Byleth said, "Until you are better in skill, you cannot duel me."

For some reason, Lorenz snorted.

Byleth turned to the training grounds and walked over to the training dummy, lifted it up, and walked closer to their students, setting it down. They backed away from the training dummy, letting their arms fall by their side. "Claude. You first."

"What?" Claude laughed, holding up his arms behind his head. "Me, Teach? How come?"

Byleth met his eyes. Claude's arms fell. "You are the house leader. Grab your weapon."

Sylvain laughed. Hilda snickered into her palm, reaching up and slapping Claude's back with her other hand. Claude stumbled forward, turned around to give Hilda a glare that Byleth couldn't see, then walked over to the weapons rack.

He picked up a bow and walked back to the dummy. He pulled out a training arrow, nocked it, and shot a grin towards his classmates.

"This is how it's done." He proclaimed, turning back towards the training dummy.

He drew.

He aimed.

He missed.

Byleth narrowed their eyes. The target was close enough that Claude would hit reliably, wasn't it? The professor stepped back a bit, letting their eyes focus more onto Claude instead of the group.

Claude drew the bow well. His form was good, with him pulling the drawstring up to his cheek. The bow was steady in his hands, and he wasn't shaking. The arrow shifted a little, and Byleth watched as Claude ever so slightly moved his bow to one side, firing as he did so. As the drawstring released, Byleth spotted the corner of Claude's mouth quirk upwards just a little before settling back into his normal, fake smile.

The arrow did not hit the target.

Byleth crossed their arms. They watched as Claude's form ever so slightly got better - how he tensed up when one of his arrows grazed the target. Lorenz huffed and muttered something that earned him a shushing from the rest of the class.

Byleth drew one conclusion from this: Claude was trying to fake incompetency. For what reason, they didn't know, but they didn't want him to get worse by practicing bad form. Byleth pulled out a training sword, watching as Claude drew his bowstring back for another try.

_ "What are you doing?"  _ Sothis asked, yawning.

Byleth only grunted for a response, and Claude turned to them, his eyebrows furrowing. "Ah, Teach, sorry, the bow doesn't seem to be in me tod-"

Byleth slashed their sword. 

Claude's eyes widened, and his free hand went towards his training arrows.

He didn't attempt to block with his bow. He pulled out the arrow and, as he dodged Byleth's attack, notched the arrow and fired it. The arrow collided with Byleth's armor, bouncing off and clattering to the ground.

Claude was reaching for another arrow, but Byleth put their sword in the ground, eyes staring into his. They hoped that their eyes were neutral, and not the confusion that was there. Why was Claude pretending to be bad, when he clearly knew how to counter attacks?

Claude stared up at them, and he paused. "Hey, Teach, what was that for?"

Byleth sighed. "Stop pretending you don't know how to aim." Byleth pointed their hand towards the arrows scattering the training grounds. "You keep adjusting your bow to miss the target, and you did well against the bandits when we first fought together. You did not miss that much."

Claude nodded, pushing himself up from the ground and putting his arrow away. "Observant, aren't you, Teach?"

Byleth placed a hand on Claude's shoulder. "Judging by your reaction, you have some skill. I will keep that in mind." 

They pushed him towards the line of students. Their students' eyes widened a bit, and as Claude stumbled towards them, Sylvain laughed and clapped Claude's shoulder. "They totally caught you, man."

Claude groaned. "Yeah. That sucks, man. Wanted them to believe I was bad..."

Linhardt sighed. "Why would you want that? That would just lead to more training time and more of my time being taken up."

"Professor." Lorenz said, raising his hand. "You said you would not duel anyone, and yet, you dueled Claude. Why is that?"

Byleth gave him the truthful answer. "He was pretending. I had to point it out."

_ "You could've just said something."  _ Byleth could imagine Sothis waving her hands in front of her, and struggled to keep their face neutral at the thought.

Lysithea nodded. "Teaching him a lesson the way you know how. You were a mercenary, after all." She ran a hand through her white hair. "Now, who's next?"

Byleth looked at Lysithea. The more they stared at her, the more nervous she got. "Um... Professor... You're not going to choose me, are you?"

Hilda laughed. Leonie nervously adjusted her gloves.

Byleth nodded. "Yes."

Lysithea's eyes drifted towards the training dummy, and she quietly pocketed the book she was holding. The white-haired girl stepped towards the dummy slowly, eyebrows creasing inwards.

_ "Is she scared?" _ Sothis hummed.  _ "That's rather odd of her, is it not?" _

Byleth stepped back, watching for Lysithea's spell. If Byleth remembered correctly, Lysithea was a studious girl, and likely had the basics down for Swarm. Perhaps not the execution, though.

Linhardt and Marianne both glanced at each other, then back towards Lysithea.

Lysithea breathed in, letting one hand brush over the book in her bag, and holding the other out in front of her. Dark energy swirled around her, forming up behind her in a circular pattern that Byleth recognized as the spell forming. Lysithea swiped her hand in front of her, and the magical circle behind her faded into her shadow, before shooting forward and forming into tons of tiny black, bug-like shapes.

Byleth watched as the magical bugs swarmed around the training dummy, eating into the wood, before disappearing like any normal spell would.

Byleth blinked. That was a completely successful attempt at the Swarm spell.

Lysithea inhaled, dropping her hand from the air. She hunched over a bit, and looked over to Byleth. "I... did my best."

"You did." Byleth nodded. Interesting. Their eyes went over to Marianne and Linhardt, who were now talking amongst each other.

They must've trained together, and that was why Lysithea had that after only a week had passed.

"Next is you, Linhardt."

"What?" Linhardt's eyes broke apart from his conversation with Marianne, and he yawned. "Why me, Professor? Aren't there other students who can show off first? This is utterly boring."

Byleth would ignore that he was talking with Marianne, then. They pointed to the partially eaten training dummy. "You are next."

* * *

Sylvain had just finished swiping his lance and missing for the last time when someone knocked on the training hall doors. Byleth looked up from their spot observing, then looked back to their class.

"That is all." Byleth nodded. "Dismissed."

"Wow," Leonie commented, but Byleth turned and walked towards the doors before they could hear whatever comment she had.

They opened up the door, and saw the face of Manuela... followed by her class. Ferdinand lifted his hand in a wave, and Edelgard smiled.

"Oh, Professor Byleth!" Manuela said, smiling. "It's a shock to see you here!"

"Is it?" Byleth said, tilting their head slightly. "I am a mercenary."

"Oh, yes. And your muscles show that off well." Manuela sighed, then shook her head. "But you seem to be here with your students! So that means you got here first thing in the morning for your assessment!" She smiled. "Tell me how your students are - remember, I'm always here to help!"

_ Thanks. _

Byleth nodded. Their eyes drifted towards Dorothea and Bernadetta, who were talking to each other.

They would need to talk to the two of them more eventually... but today was not that day. Byleth nodded at the class, then squeezed past Edelgard and walked out, ignoring Manuela calling out for them.

* * *

Seminar day. Most of the students were free to do whatever they wanted, but a few could come and learn techniques from the professors assigned that day. Some came from the general classes, and some...

Byleth watched as Dorothea entered the room, brushing a hand through her hair. Felix leaned in his seat, pointedly looking away from the general student next to him. Ignatz was sitting in the front row, a blank piece of paper next to him as he reached up to adjust his glasses. 

Ferdinand was neatly organizing the desk in front of him, and Byleth's eyes lingered for a moment. Ferdinand...

_ Byleth struck down another soldier with their sword, letting the spine-like blade pile back into a regular sword shape. They glanced around them, pointing their soldiers in one direction as they looked in another. Their light green hair flowed a bit in some wind kicked up from above, and they glanced up to find Claude hovering closer to the ground. _

_ "Something wrong?" Byleth asked, preparing their sword. "Who's up ahead?" _

_ Hilda ran over, blood staining her gloves and the front of her clothes. She panted a bit. "Claude, I think enemies are coming from inside the bridge passageway." _

_ "That." Claude said, running a hand through his hair. His white wyvern whined at him, and he rubbed her head. "Shh, don't worry, Pearl." He looked up from his wyvern. "The enemy commanders are up ahead, and they're the ones that are ordering the reinforcements. If we take them out, we should be able to stop the reinforcements and take the bridge completely." _

_ Byelth hummed, rubbing a hand against the side of their head. "Sounds good. So, the commanders..." _

_ "Planning in the middle of battle, are we?" _

_ Byleth and Hilda react immediately, getting sword and axe ready. Standing in front of them was undoubtedly Ferdinand. His hair was longer, and he sat upon a steed that Byleth had never seen in their life, but he had the same hair, the same style of clothing... _

_ Ferdinand pulled out his lance. _

_ Claude pulled the reins on Pearl, and she soared up into the sky. _

_ The sounds of hooves could be heard, and Byleth swore under their breath. Ferdinand was one of the commanders, wasn't he? _

_ "Sorry for this, but I must get you off this bridge!" _

_ Ferdinand snapped the reins on his horse, and he charged forward. _

_ The events happened in a blink of an eye. The lance drove downwards, with Byleth and Hilda scrambling out of the way. Ferdinand pulled back to take another swing, hair flowing in the wind, when an arrow missed his chest. He grabbed for the reins of his horse. _

_ Hilda's axe glowed orange, and she propelled herself off the ground, the glow growing brighter. _

_ Ferdinand turned his head towards her, still attempting to get control of his horse- _

_ Strike. A splatter of blood. The force threw Ferdinand from his mount and smashed him against the ground. _

Ferdinand had died.

Byleth glanced towards the blank board, then down to the chalk on their desk. They picked up the chalk, and the chatter quieted a bit. Byleth walked over to the board, and wrote down,  _ Non Verbal Leadership. _

Byleth looked to the class. Dorothea and Ignatz both leaned forward in their seats. Byleth lightly tapped the chalk on the desk, causing some other students to perk their heads up.

"That is an example," They said, lifting the chalk up, "of non verbal leadership." With that, they walked back to their desk. "When in command of a batallion, being able to lead them where they need to go and tell what attacks to make, verbal is one clear option."

Byleth's face contorted for a second, but they swiftly brought their face back into neutral. They weren't expressive yet. Not around most of these people.

Ignatz paused from taking notes, staring at Byleth.

"However." Byleth paused. "Not every situation is ideal for verbal commands. The enemies will not be deaf, and will take advantage of overheard orders to sabotage your plans."

Silence. Byleth glanced over to Felix, who was drumming his fingers on the table. Felix always came to their lectures, whenever they held one. Perhaps because Byleth used a sword...

"Felix."

Felix looked up from his spot, his angry neutral expression unchanging.

"Give me an example of a non verbal command."

Felix snorted. "How am I supposed to know? I'm learning it right now. You haven't even mentioned anything about it." Felix sat up straighter. "Besides, the one you used also makes sound, so that won't help in a real battle, anyway." Felix leaned back down. "Ask again when you tell us what the nonverbal techniques are."

Byleth paused for a moment. They hadn’t been expecting Felix to point that out. They nodded. "Felix brings up a good point."

Felix seemed to bristle in his seat.

"For situations in battle which need absolute silence, tapping the ground will bring attention with the noise. In the end, I’ll be teaching you how to develop your own nonverbal signals." 

Their eyes passed over Dorothea, who was slowly shuffling away from Ferdinand, who she had sat next to. 

"Among classmates, among soldiers, having unique signals will save lives."

They wondered why Dorothea seemed to dislike Ferdinand. Byleth remembered her calling him a friend, after he had died. Was that not always the case?

Byleth walked back to the board. "Think of situations which could need nonverbal signals." They held the chalk up to the board, and looked to the participating students.

One general student rose their hand. "Um... fighting a single demonic beast that you need to sneak up on?"

* * *

Byleth finished writing their last point, letting their eyes glance over to the window. The sun was shining into the room, which meant that Byleth had taken up enough of the students’ time.

"Thank you." Byleth bowed their head. "Dismissed."

The students all got up from their desks, turning around and aiming for the back door. Felix burst out first, followed by the general class students.

Byleth sat down at their desk, arranging the notes they had brought just in case. Luckily, they did not need to use them. They were horrible at reading from a paper with spirit, even with their future knowledge.

Sothis popped into existence, almost causing them to drop their papers.

"Stop that." Byleth whispered, glancing over to the last few students there. Ferdinand was talking to Dorothea, who was nervously rubbing a hand up and down her arm. They glanced back to Sothis.  _ Nobody knows about you. _

" _ Is that any way to talk to your goddess? _ " Sothis laughed, sitting in the air. " _ But I will say, that was a rather excellent lecture! All your talk of battle makes total sense, what with it being in the first month and all, and you're just a poor mercenary, just pulled into the Professor role. _ "

Byleth looked over to the remaining two students again. Dorothea ran a hand through her hair, then looked over to Ferdinand and said something. She then turned and ran out of the room. Ferdinand stared after her, pulling a strand of his hair in his fingers.

_ That mercenary has the goddess living inside them, who was a mercenary because their dad ran away. _ Byleth responded, sorting through their notes.  _ Just a poor mercenary. _

_ "All that matters is what they think of you, is it not?"  _ Sothis smiled, floating closer.  _ "I say you're doing good! Now, what else are you supposed to do today?" _

Byleth found themselves thinking,  _ Fish. _

Sothis' smiling face contorted into one of displeasure. She sighed.  _ "No. That is not it, Byleth." _

_ Plan lessons for class and leave enough open space so when the knights come and tell us they have cornered the bandits, we can drop the lesson plans and go. _

Sothis nodded, smile returning.  _ "Good!" _ She clapped her hands together.  _ "Now, come on. Up and back to your room with you." _

Byleth slid off their chair, walking around their desk with their notes in hand. They walked towards the exit of the classroom, where Ferdinand was still standing.

"...There's no way that it was my hair she was thinking about, was she?" Ferdinand mumbled as Byleth passed by. "But the way she looked at me... does she have a past related to my hair, and that's why she recommended it?"

Byleth paused. Sothis floated forward a few inches, then noticed the lack of movement and stopped.

Ferdinand noticed the pause, and seemed to snap into focus. "Ah, Professor Byleth! Please, forgive me overstaying my welcome. I was simply examining some new information." He bowed. "I shall take my leave. Thank you for the wonderful lesson today."

Ferdinand rose up from his bow, turned, and walked through Sothis and out into the courtyard.

Sothis shivered.  _ "I wish I could be seen by others." _

_ You're stuck in my mind, can't change that. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... on a side note! I might shift the schedule to.... twice a month? something more managable, so i can write a lot and have the upload schedule not take a huge bite out of the buffer.
> 
> edited by evaceratops!


	13. Precede Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "We really have to go right now?" Hilda complained, groaning. "Ugh. I didn't want it to happen so soon!"
> 
> "It is happening, whether you like it or not, Miss Goneril." Lorenz huffed, crossing his arms. Claude rolled his eyes. Lorenz definitely was not an easy one to be around at first. "Now, we shall be grabbing our weapons, and we will hopefully not die out there."  
\---  
The gang goes to the location of their first kills.

It was the middle of the week when a soldier burst into the room, panting and out of breath. Claude's eyes darted over to him, and watched as the entire class moved to look.

"Professor Byleth!" He called out, and Byleth looked up from their notes. "Rhea told me to grab you. The knights are leading the bandits to a corner of Zanado, and your class should come along if they want to complete their mission."

Claude resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He turned around in his seat, starting to say, "Well, we're in the middle of class, so-"

Byleth shut the book they were reading from, and Claude paused. Was Byleth really going to-

"Class," Byleth said, "That is where we are going to stop. Soldier," Byleth walked down the middle aisle row towards the knight who had opened the door, face still as solidly flat as ever, "Guide us to where we need to go."

Claude stared at Byleth, sure that his expression of bafflement was one that didn't fit his face very well. Claude glanced over to Hilda, whose own mouth was hanging wide open.

"W-Wait," Ignatz said, "We're going  _ right now?" _

"A mercenary needs to be prepared for conflict at anytime!" Leonie boasted, thumping a fist against her chest. "Our teacher obviously learned that from the amazing Captain Jeralt."

Byleth looked over to Leonie, and Claude swore he saw their eyebrows press together, and their eyes narrow. The moment was gone, though, and their face was neutral when they added, "We also need to grab our weapons."

"We really have to go right now?" Hilda complained, groaning. "Ugh. I didn't want it to happen so soon!"

"It is happening, whether you like it or not, Miss Goneril." Lorenz huffed, crossing his arms. Claude rolled his eyes. Lorenz definitely was not an easy one to be around at first. "Now, we shall be grabbing our weapons, and we will hopefully not die out there."

Silence. The classroom glanced at Lorenz, and even Byleth looked over to him. The boy kept his hand pressed to his shirt, a nervous look on his face.

Claude felt a little bad when he noticed Lorenz was sweating, so he offered a, "Yeah, I hope we don't. Which is why we have our dear Teach to protect us from such a fate, right?"

He looked over to Byleth, who nodded at him.

The soldier, who had been silent up to this point, coughed. "Well, uh, yes! Let's get you with the Knights, and on the way out, you can get your weapons and armor."

Byleth nodded, and they looked back to their class and nodded again, slightly slower. The students, with the exception of Linhardt, stood and readied themselves to leave. 

As the class grouped up, Leonie wrapped her arms around Linhardt's waist and lifted him up, adjusting him in her arms. Raphael made a worried noise at her, approaching her and the still sleeping Linhardt.

"Don't worry!" Leonie smiled. "I've been training my muscles recently, even if I've had to practice with pegasi a lot!"

"Let Raphael help, Leonie." Byleth said, their tone commanding, and Leonie sighed. Raphael put his hand beneath one side of Linhardt, and Leonie moved.

Claude laughed. "Two people handling Linhardt, and he still isn't awake?"

* * *

Hilda kept one hand on the axe by her side, footsteps beating in a familiar rhythm that Claude found comfortably familiar. The archer kept his bow in his hands, letting his hand run over the iron that was as comfortable as his second bow in the future. He let his eyes glance over the surrounding soldiers that were assigned to help protect them. Kill for them, if danger were to spill over the threshold.

It wouldn't be a big deal for them, anyway. They had dealt with way worse than some bandits in a valley. How close were they? He knew he had his first kill before this, but how would the others react? Marianne? How did Linhardt deal, before he was recruited?

Hilda glanced over to him, and her voice took him out of his brief trance. "Whatcha thinking about, leader boy?" She laughed, running one finger through her hair. "Better not be planning. We're here to take out bandits, not think about the 100 ways some future plan is going to go wrong."

"I wasn't planning, actually." Claude sighed, rolling his eyes.

"You had that intense thinking look on your face." Hilda said, rolling her eyes back at him. "What else am I supposed to think?"

Claude opened his mouth to argue. He shut it, then looked back to Linhardt, who was in one of the supply wagons, still sleeping. Lysithea sat beside him, dark magic pulsing beneath her fingertips and swirling up her arms. Alert, was she? He'll have to tell her to get some sleep later.

"I just... wasn't planning." Claude said, stopping his walking when he noticed the soldiers in front of him stop. 

He spotted the form of Byleth walking amongst the soldiers, and when they passed by, cape fluttering behind them, Claude waved. Byleth paused before waving back, a small smile on their face. Success! He would take that.

"We're going to rest for the night." Byleth said, pointing at the sky. "It is best we are as prepared as possible for the bandits. A nighttime attack will not do well for our first real assignment."

Hilda, overdramatically, sat down on the ground. She laid her axe across her lap, brushing a hand over her forehead. "Ughhh, finally. We were walking forever, Professor... how can you walk for that long?"

Claude plopped down next to her, sighing. "Yeah, Teach. I'm surprised you're tiring us out like that."

Byleth just stared at the two of them. They shook their head, then continued to walk around. They paused as a soldier pulled out a tent from the supplies, then turned to Hilda and Claude. "... I expect you two to get a tent set up."

They turned and started to walk towards where the rest of the class was scattered.

Hilda groaned. "That's too much wooorrrk..." Hilda draped herself over Claude's shoulder. "Claude, get a tent for me, please?" She fluttered her eyes.

Claude was immune to her charms, and shook his head. "Pretty sure Byleth would see you hounding me. Go share a tent with Marianne or something. You two can-"

Hilda flicked his nose, and Claude let out a sharp whine. He heard Lysithea laughing, and he looked over to see her pulling out a tent from the supplies wagon Linhardt was sleeping in. She held the folded tent in one hand, and was covering her mouth with the other.

Not subtle.

"Why doesn't the little princess go and get us a tent, since she has the free time to laugh at us?" Claude called, and Lysithea huffed at him, but turned and reached in to get another tent anyway.

* * *

Linhardt was awake, and he was staring at the stars. Claude lay down opposite of him, their heads touching. The stars above them, while not in the exact positions he had memorized plenty of times in his youth, were still swirling in the same patterns, still gave him the same sense of home that he’d gotten from looking up at them constantly in the future.

Home. Almyra. He had been due to succeed as the King for a while, and had gone back to support the official passing of the torch in Fodlan. After all, he and Byleth were to be the pillars for a new world.

He twirled his braid in his hands, staring at it. He was a boy again, but this time, with the mental maturity of a man. If this were any other situation, he would have undone the braid in a heartbeat, but with Byleth being unaware...

It sucked for him. He was aware of why he couldn't, but the braid was like a weight, reminding him that he was stuck like this now. That it wasn't a dream, and he wasn't going to wake up, crowned as king of Almyra over his father and ready to start some reforms over there.

He was here.

But he was going to do a lot of good. He just had to bide his time.

"Are you thinking, Leader Man?" Linhardt asked, and Claude almost jumped. He sighed once he realized it was just Linhardt, and laid back down. "Ah... I wasn't talking much, so you didn't notice me. Useful."

"When we're fighting at night or in the dark, perhaps." Claude mentally shuffled that tidbit into the 'if we have to rescue Flayn in that worst case scenario' category. "Not in the situation we're going into, though."

Linhardt sighed. "I suppose the thought counted."

"Speaking of thoughts." A new voice piped up, and Claude reached out for his bow, only to almost nock his arrow at Leonie, who threw her hands up. "Whoa, whoa! Calm yourself, it's just me! I see not even time travel has dulled your reaction time, Claude."

"What about me?" Linhardt droned, who hadn't even bothered to move. 

Leonie gave him a pointed look, only visible by the faint light of the moon above them. "You didn't even move, and you were always like this. Remember when I took you to that lake... or, rather, all of us took you, since you decided to take a nap until we were there?"

Linhardt shrugged. "So I did."

Leonie struggled for a response. She settled for just sitting next to the two of them, leaning her head onto her raised palm. "Hm... I was just thinking about tomorrow."

Claude focused his eyes back to her. "How so?"

"Well... technically, this is the first time many of us have killed. Marianne... Hilda... Ignatz... Maybe Sylvain and... you, Linhardt."

Linhardt somehow became more pale than he was already, which Claude found to be an accomplishment. "Oh... oh, right... Just remembering that the first blood is going to be spilled soon..."

Claude sat up and turned around, eyebrows furrowing. "As long as you guys at least pretend like you haven't killed before, spout some lines about how you will honor their deaths or something similar, I think?" Claude rubbed his chin. "I don't remember how you guys reacted. I was busy leading the charge."

Leonie hummed, mimicking Claude's thinking by rubbing her own chin. Her eyes drifted to Linhardt. "...Linhardt, how did you respond?"

"I'm pretty sure I threw up." Lindhardt said, as casually as one might say 'I stepped on a leaf in the woods'.

Leonie's face scrunched up. "That's gross."

"You asked."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oops, im doing house chores now, so i may be... more busy than i thought i would be. No worries, though! I'm definitely going to work on this!!
> 
> also i got back into cookie run. that. may get in the way. a little.
> 
> edited by eva!


	14. Mission Procedure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before Byleth could even move, Ignatz took an arrow out of his quiver and notched it, firing at the approaching archer. The arrow clattered just short in front of the enemy archer, causing him to start pulling out an arrow of his own. 
> 
> Ignatz jumped to his feet, notching his own arrow as well.
> 
> Release.  
\---  
Byleth leads the charge. They think they are forcing their students to kill once again.

Byleth heard the murmurings of students outside of their tent. Their voices blended together, and Byleth held in a groan, brushing their hands over their eyes. After they could see again, they poked their head out of the tent.

Leonie, Linhardt, and Claude were awake near the campfire, which had gone out long ago. The other students were still in their tents, judging by how the three of them were the only ones there. 

Leonie's face scrunched up. "That's gross."

Linhardt shrugged, a slight smile on his face. "You asked."

"Why are you-" Byleth coughed into their palm, trying to uphold their previous personality. "You should be asleep. We have a fight tomorrow. A sleepy fighter is a dead fighter."

Leonie's eyes snapped over to them, and her mouth opened, but Byleth was already crawling back into their tent. 

They didn't want to hear another word about Jeralt right now.

* * *

The entrance of the valley. Byleth rested their sword by their side, and analyzed their students. They wore some basic armor, as required, and held their iron weapons in their hands. These were no practice weapons. These were real weapons, able to kill.

_ Byleth  _ was making them  _ kill _ .

_ To make sure I have the timeline right. _ Byleth breathed in, out.  _ Make sure I get back to being Archbishop, even if that wasn't really what I want. _

They look to Marianne. Her hair is brushed behind her ears, but the bags under her eyes are still there. She wasn't going to be okay after this. Byleth could barely remember her reaction, but could remember the emotion on her face- panic.

_ And I'll have to cause panic once again. _

Byleth hoped the grimace on their face went unnoticed.

This would make good allies. Allies and friends. Byleth adjusted their sword in their hands, and watched as the mages readied in a mage stance. Lysithea's face darkened, and dark bugs seemed to swarm around her hands.

"The plan," Byleth started, looking up to the bridge in front of them. "Cross this bridge. Deal with the enemies fast. Strike hard. If you cannot do that, raise your hand."

Linhardt and Marianne raised their hand. Hilda raised hers, with a snort coming from Claude the moment he saw hers in the air. Ignatz raised his, a bit more nervously.

Byleth knew Hilda wasn't telling the truth, but if they pointed that out, that would be more suspicious than falling for her act. Byleth pushed back a sigh, and looked around their students.

"Raphael, go with Ignatz. Linhardt, stay nearby those two." Byleth commanded, and the three of them drifted towards each other. Byleth turned to Hilda and Marianne, observing the two of them for a second.

_ "A great team, right?" _

Byleth's grip tightened on their sword, and they turned to Claude, ignoring the goddess' words.

"Claude, you, Sylvain, and Leonie." The three of them worked well together, Byleth remembered. Byleth nodded as the three of them moved closer together.

Sylvain whispered something to Leonie. Byleth tuned them out. Byleth registered the faint 'thwap' of Leonie hitting Sylvain. 

"Lorenz, Marianne, Lysithea." As those three grouped, Byleth turned to Hilda. "Hilda, you come with me."

"Oh, that's soooo cool!" Hilda squealed, hopping up to Byleth. Byleth did not miss this part of Hilda. "I get to go with the cute Professor, and they'll protect me!"

"I expect you to pull your own weight." Byleth stated, turning back to the bridge. If they remembered correctly, there were only two bandits stationed at the bridge. "Hilda and I are up front. Claude, your group behind us. Raphael, your group beside us. Lorenz, your group behind them."

Nods from the class. 

Byleth readied their sword. "Get ready. We go with a tap of my foot on the ground."

There was sounds of swords clashing from other sections of the valley, behind the strange structures and walls. They were left with the stragglers. Safe enough. Byleth breathed in. 1. Breathed out. 2. Breathed in. 3.

Tap.

Byleth ran forwards, and Hilda followed behind. Their first opponent was someone with an axe. Byleth lunged first, catching the axe with their sword. Hilda swerved around Byleth, axe winding in the air. As the axe thief in front of them attempted to push Byleth off, Hilda swooped in, taking a chunk of skin off with her axe swing.

The axe person stumbled back.

Byleth shoved a sword through their gut. When they went limp, Byleth pulled the sword back, eyes glancing towards Hilda.

She didn't seem to react... until her eyes met Byleth's. "A shame he had to die to us, right?" 

There's a smile on her face. Is it real? Her eyes seem to stay, even as the smile lifts on her lips.

An arrow gets launched from behind and sticks into another axe person. Sylvain charged forward, lance shoving into them. He pulled it out, watching as the body crumpled.

"A shame." Byleth responded, feeling nothing for the body beneath them. They stepped over it and kept going.

* * *

Linhardt threw up. 

Ignatz and Raphael were sticking close to him. Raphael was the one rubbing circles into Linhardt's back, whispering words of comfort, while Ignatz kept a hand on his bow and had one hovering near his quiver.

Byleth searched the valley, and spotted an archer approaching the three. 

Before Byleth could even move, Ignatz took an arrow out of his quiver and notched it, firing at the approaching archer. The arrow clattered just short in front of the enemy archer, causing him to start pulling out an arrow of his own. 

Ignatz jumped to his feet, notching his own arrow as well.

Release.

A cut on Ignatz' cheek. An arrow right in a weak spot of the other archer's armor. The other man crumbled, and Ignatz fell to the ground, rubbing a hand over the cut his cheek.

_ ...His first kill. _

Byleth looked away, watching as Hilda approached with the loot from the chest the bandits had- gold. Byleth opened up their pack, and gestured towards it. Hilda, wordlessly, placed the gold inside.

Byleth looked back at the group of three.

"You will be good?" They asked, resisting the urge to add on,  _ right? _ To the end. They weren't at that level yet.

Ignatz looked up, and he gulped. "...yeah, I... I think so. I can protect Linhardt." He lifted his hand to graze his cheek again.

"Don't touch. Might infect it." Byleth warned, then turned back to Hilda. "Let's check up on Claude's group."

* * *

The sound of boots hitting the ground echoed in Byleth's ears as their class walked back towards Garreg Mach. They kept glancing back at the group of students, watching as they interacted among each other.

Leonie had one hand on her lance, and she was talking to Sylvain about... something. Byleth didn't know what. Ignatz had his cut healed up, but he kept brushing over where the cut had been. Linhardt didn't look as pale as he was before. Hilda was posing with one arm, since the other had a tight grip on the axe. Lysithea and Lorenz talked to each other about magic, though the both of them were frowning.

_ "Killing does that to people." _ Sothis' voice rang out, and Byleth stumbled over a rock. 

They were sure they heard a cry from behind them, and they felt hands on their back- Raphael?

"Thank you." Byleth said, pushing themselves out of his grip. They looked to their right, and found Marianne, frown deep on her face and hand glowing with energy. "I am fine." Marianne didn't seem to believe them, but she went back to the group of students.

They continued walking, looking towards the sky.  _ You could warn a mercenary about when you wake up. _

_ "If you were paying attention,"  _ Sothis huffed, " _ You would've heard me yawn... but you were paying attention to your deer." _

_ Shut up. _

* * *

When they entered Garreg Mach, a blur of black, gold, and silver raced by Byleth. A yelp came from behind them, and Byleth sharply turned around to find that Ashe had jumped onto Ignatz, hugging him tight.

"Welcome back!" Ashe said, pulling away. "How was the mission? Did you..." Ashe faltered. "Did you kill anyone?"

Byleth felt bad that his adoptive father was the next mission. Ashe wouldn't be around to see it.

"Oh... uh... yes." Ignatz brushed over the spot on his cheek again, eyes glancing down at the ground. "It... It was..."

"There's no need to explain." Ashe placed a hand on Ignatz' shoulder, smiling. "I understand your emotions by looking at you. If it will bring you pain, don't say it."

"Aww, aren't you cute." Sylvain teased, and Lysithea immediately smacked him. The future cavalier yelped, and Leonie burst into laughter. Hilda joined in soon after, and soon, the Golden Deer were laughing among themselves.

Byleth found themselves smiling.

_ "Be careful!"  _ Sothis said, and Byleth forced their face back to a neutral state, just in time for Claude to look up from doubling over.

"Ah, Sylvain, am I right?" He smirked. He wiped a tear from his eye. "Always pointing these things out. You going to go back to your room and pick up the pieces of the lesson plan you had?"

Before Byleth could say,  _ no, I planned around this, _ Sothis interrupted.

_ "YES, we are going to go back to your room! We need to think of how to navigate through the fog as if we don't know the terrain like the back of our hand!" _

Byleth had to admit, she had a point.

"Yes. I am." Byleth bowed their head, then looked back at their students. "I assume you shall all get rest."

The look that Claude and Hilda exchanged were not a good sign.

"Yes, we sure will, Teach." Claude said, nodding his head like Byleth was going to believe him. "Go do your planning thingie."

_ "You would've believed him."  _ Sothis sighed. " _ Get back to bed." _

* * *

"Professor!" Ashe greeted, and Byleth glanced up from their book of notes. What was Ashe doing in their room so early? "Are you adjusting well to monastery life?"

Byleth nodded. It was true enough.

"Ah, that's good!" Ashe started to rub the cuff of his uniform, freckled face slowly turning nervous. "Um... I... have a question for you."

Byleth rose an eyebrow, nodding their head again. What possible question could Ashe have? Private tutoring?

"May I join your class?"

Whatever Ashe said after that, it was muffled by the sound of Sothis yelling in their head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was beta'd by... nobody! the other two editors were busy, and i had gotten... a lot of work done... so i was like, let's get this out!
> 
> also, i got the cindered shadows dlc done. hapi and yuri are easily my favs!


End file.
